Multi-physics simulation study of magnetic shielding on hypersonic vehicles

Abstract

The renewed interest in hypersonic flights due to NASA’s Artemis program has brought fresh attention to the physical challenges of reusable thermal protection systems. The need to enhance the reliability of hypersonic and re-entry vehicles has sharply focused on the limitations of our current comprehension of thermo-chemical non-equilibrium flows and our limited predictive capabilities. This paper presents the work carried out by the University of Southampton and our consortium partners within the MEESST collaboration. This project is currently involved in both numerical and experimental research to develop magnetic shielding techniques for atmospheric re-entry vehicles. These techniques aim to offer additional approaches for mitigating both impinging heat loads and communication blackout. Herein, we present the results of multi-physics simulations conducted with the University of Southampton’s HANSA toolkit, along with comparisons, both experimental and numerical, produced by our consortium partners. These encompass simulations of multiple capsules undergoing atmospheric re-entry and simulations of ground-based experimental campaigns. We give particular attention to the effects of thermo-chemical non-equilibrium and MHD modelling. We illustrate the impacts of various mathematical models on the results obtained, with a strong emphasis on mission-critical parameters such as surface heat fluxes and electron densities. We also present conclusions regarding the implications of these results on magnetic shielding designs. Lastly, we offer an overview of current knowledge gaps in areas crucial to MEESST and lay out plans for future simulations and experiments, both within the MEESST project and beyond.