Computational Simulation of Arc Heater Flows for Martian Atmosphere

Abstract

An existing computational fluid dynamics code which simulates a high enthalpy arc heater flow for air, named ARCFLO3, is updated to be able to calculate a high temperature carbonaceous flow. The flowfield is assumed to be in thermochemical equilibrium and the thermodynamic and transport properties for high temperature carbonaceous gas mixture are calculated though the Yos' mixture rule by compiling the most updated set of collision integrals. The radiative transport in arc heater is calculated in a fully coupled manner with flow motion by using a 3-band radiation model developed in the present study. The upgraded code is used to calculate the operational characteristic parameters such as arc voltage, chamber pressure, heater thermal efficiency and mass-averaged enthalpy for existing 60MW arc heater geometry by using CO2 as a test gas. The result shows that by specifying the wind tunnel operating conditions routinely used for air, the similar level of the operational characteristic parameters is obtained, and that a high enthalpy environment during a manned Martian atmospheric entry flight can be produced for the arc heater geometry.