Coupling Heatshield Response and Aerothermal Environment for Mars Entry via Surface Gas Blowing

Abstract

Flight data obtained using the instrumented heatshields on the Mars Science Laboratory and Mars 2020 has offered unique validation data for material response and aerothermal environment modeling of Mars atmospheric entry. While the environment and material response are coupled in reality, they are usually solved separately with a correction to account for blowing at the surface. The objective of this work is to showcase the coupling of gas blowing between the material response and the aerothermal environment codes. Simulations are iterated until a convergence in surface temperature is obtained. Coupling the material response and environment models may lead to improved fidelity in modeling atmospheric entry and could serve as a validation for decoupled material response and aerothermal environment models.