Modeling of Radiative Heat Transfer in Carbonaceous Atmospheres Using k-Distribution Models

Abstract

Full-spectrum correlated k-distribution models are presented for bands of CN and CO for applications relevant to entry into atmospheres of Titan, Mars, Venus and flows over an ablating heat shield. A new emission-weighted fullspectrum k-distribution model is proposed as an improvement over the more popular Planck function-weighted fullspectrum k-distribution model. In the new reordering scheme, emission coefficient is used as the weight instead of the Planck-function. To exploit the full potential of the k-distribution method databasing schemes for k distributions are discussed and CPU time studies are presented. The accuracy of the new model and the database is demonstrated by solving the radiative transfer equation for two-cell problems and stagnation line flowfields of Titan's Huygens spacecraft and a spacecraft entering into the Martian atmosphere.