Effect of non-ionizing reaction rate (assumed to be controllable) on the plasma generation mechanism and communication around RAMC vehicle during atmospheric reentry

Wenchong Ouyang,Qi Liu,Tao Jin,Zhengwei Wu,Zheng Zhang

doi:10.1038/s41598-021-99584-3

Wenchong Ouyang, Qi Liu + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-99584-3

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Abstract

Radio frequency (RF) blackout occurs during radio attenuation measurement C (RAMC) vehicle reentry due to the attenuation effect of the plasma sheath on the communication signal. In recent years, the mitigation mechanism of chemical reaction for RF blackout problem has gradually been studied numerically and experimentally. However, the effect of non-ionization reaction rate has been ignored because it does not directly involve the generation of electrons. In the present study, the influence of non-ionizing reaction rate on the plasma generation mechanism and EM wave attenuation was numerically solved by the plasma flow and multilayer transmission model. According to the simulation results, only the reaction rate of NO rightleftharpoons N + O has a significant effect on the electron number density in all non-ionizing reactions, and the degree of influence is less than the ionization reaction rate. The EM wave attenuation decreases with the decrease of the reaction rate of NO rightleftharpoons N + O. When the reaction rate is reduced by 25 times, the maximum attenuation of electromagnetic wave can be reduced by 12 dB. Finally, a potential scheme by reducing the reaction rate of NO rightleftharpoons N + O was proposed to mitigate the RF blackout problem.

Highlights

There is a major demand to maintain normal communication with the ground station during vehicle reentry mission
Takahashi et al considered the effects of entire surface catalysis on the Radio frequency (RF) blackout, and the results showed that the catalysis of ionization reactions can effectively reduce signal a ttenuation[16]
The effect of the NO ⇋ N + O reaction rate is less than the ionization reaction rate N + O ⇋ NO+ + e, reducing the reaction rate of NO ⇋ N + O can still effectively reduce the attenuation of electromagnetic waves

Summary

Introduction

There is a major demand to maintain normal communication with the ground station during vehicle reentry mission. Because the speed of RAMC vehicle is much faster than 5 Mach during reentry from a low Earth orbit, the violent friction between the vehicle and air will excite the vibration of air molecules and cause chemical reactions such as dissociation and ionization These charged free electrons, ions and neutral particles coat the surface of the vehicle, and the plasma sheath was formed. Takahashi et al considered the effects of entire surface catalysis on the RF blackout, and the results showed that the catalysis of ionization reactions can effectively reduce signal a ttenuation[16] These studies[14,15,16] on the chemical reaction rate for blackout problem are based on the assumption that it is controllable. The effect of non-ionizing reaction rate on the attenuation of electromagnetic waves around the vehicle was solved by multilayer transmission model. Plasma generation mechanism and a potential approach about non-ionization reaction rate for blackout problem were discussed

Methods

Results

Conclusion