Modeling of Surface Ablation for Hypersonic Reentry Vehicles Using Direct Simulation Monte Carlo Method

Abstract

The surface ablation of hypersonic reentry vehicles is modeled at the microscopic level based on direct simulation Monte Carlo method with the open-source SPARTA code. The expression of surface recession rate is derived together with a new ablation rule, which enables a better description of the coupling process between surface ablation and flow. Additionally, the grid cell size independence of the ablation rate is reached, and satisfactory results are obtained for the test cases. The simulation results of the two-dimensional wedge indicate that ablation starts from the stagnation point at the front side while the flow region near the local roughness is highly rarefied. The reentry and ablation of a three-dimensional CubeSat is also simulated to show the effectiveness of the present ablation procedure and, at the same time, may provide practical guidance for end-of-life disposal schemes of in-orbit spacecraft.