Characteristics of Radiative Heating in Mars Entry Flight with Magnetohydrodynamic Flow Control

Abstract

This study conducts numerical simulations to examine the influence of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flow control on radiative heating in Mars entry flight. The results showed that the emission from CO fourth positive system dominates most of the radiative wall heat flux at the stagnation point of the test body for the flight condition: h=50 km and V=7.94 km/s, regardless of with or without the MHD flow control. The MHD flow control mitigates the radiative wall heat flux at the stagnation point by approximately 60% of that without the MHD flow control. This is because the MHD flow control results in the expansion of the radiative absorption region together with the expansion of the shock layer. The chemical species mainly contributing to the radiative absorption are CO and C.