Coupled fluid/thermal prediction of ablating hypersonic vehicles

Abstract

A coupled fluid/thermal capability is described for predicting the ablation of hypersonic vehicles. The solution technique is achieved by coupling a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code and a material thermal response (MTR) code through mass and energy balances at a common interface. Results presented in this paper employ an equilibrium chemistry ablation model for materials without in-depth conduction. Gaseous products of ablation are injected into the flow field and are allowed to react with the high temperature gases in thermo-chemical nonequilibrium that exist near the receding surface. The predicted surface recession is calculated on an axisymmetric carbon-carbon spherecone nosetip over a given trajectory.