Sensitivity study of high-speed dusty flows over blunt bodies simulated using a discontinuous Galerkin method

Abstract

Recent interest in human-scale Mars missions has motivated research into the effects of dust particles that are suspended in the Martian atmosphere on reentry vehicles. For instance, these dust particles can enhance erosion of thermal protection systems and amplify surface heat fluxes. As such, in this work, we perform numerical simulations of hypersonic dusty flows over a blunt body using a two-way-coupled Lagrangian particle method in a discontinuous Galerkin framework. Due to the lack of a well-established physical model of the disperse phase appropriate for this multiphase flow regime, we aim to evaluate the sensitivities of numerically predicted dust-induced heat flux augmentation to various components and parameters of the model. Specifically, we investigate the drag coefficient correlation, the Nusselt number correlation, different terms in the particle momentum and energy equations, and particle size.

Microscale modeling of particle impact on TPS materials during high-speed entry

“…Elangovan and Cao [11] and Saito et al [12] have performed two-dimensional CFD analysis using a pure Eulerian approach for both the particles and the flowfield where the particle trajectory and fluid dynamic equations were solved together using the same grid. Recently, a Lagrangian particle tracking methodology using a high-order discontinuous Galerkin scheme by Palmer et al [10] and others [13,14] was used to compute coupled particle-fluid simulations of high-speed dusty flows over blunt bodies. Care must be taken when using a full Eulerian approach and in the choice of the drag and heat transfer model because the dust particles are small enough such that the flow around the particle is usually in the non-continuum regime [9].…”