Numerical Simulation of the Orion CEV Reentry Vehicle

Abstract

Aerothermodynamics analysis of Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle (CEV) re-entry vehicle at high altitude and low altitude has been studied numerically. At high altitude in the rarefied flow regime non-continuum technique such as Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method is used to solve the Boltzmann equation of kinetic theory. Results are reported at different altitudes in the rarefied regime for ideal gas and real gas model. The effects of nose radius and free stream velocity are presented. The estimation of bow shock strength and peak heat flux is higher for ideal gas compared to real gas model. The flow field characteristics have shown significant change with increase in free stream velocity. The Reynolds averaged Navier-stokes methods along with sparart-Allmaras turbulent model are used to compute flow field in high density region at low altitude. Effect of the free stream velocity and altitude at high density on flow field and heat flux generation on surface of re-entry vehicle studied. Present results are matching very well with the experimental results available from the literature for both regime.