A Brownian motion technique to simulate gasification and its application to C/C composite ablation

Abstract

Ablation of carbon-carbon composites (C/C) results in a heterogeneous surface recession mainly due to some gasification processes (oxidation, sublimation) possibly coupled to bulk mass transfer. In order to simulate and analyse the material/environment interactions during ablation, a Brownian motion simulation method featuring special Random Walk rules close to the wall has been implemented to efficiently simulate mass transfer in the low Peclet number regime. A sticking probability law adapted to this kind of Random Walk has been obtained for first-order heterogeneous reactions. In order to simulate the onset of surface roughness, the interface recession is simultaneously handled in 3D using a Simplified Marching Cube discretization. This tool is validated by comparison to analytical models. Then, its ability to provide reliable and accurate solutions of ablation phenomena in 3D is illustrated.