Finite-rate and equilibrium study of graphite ablation under arc-jet conditions

Abstract

Arc-jet facilities play a primary role in recreating aerothermal conditions experienced by atmospheric entry vehicles and are widely used to test the performance of thermal protection materials. In this work, we utilize a developed coupled framework between an overset flow solver CHAMPS NBS-Cart, and a material solver KATS-MR to study the ablation of graphite under arc-jet conditions. We implement a 12-species gas phase model to accurately represent the air-carbon mixture, including argon species present in the flow. The gas phase is modeled with a two-temperature thermo-chemical non-equilibrium model without considering electronic and ionization effects. The gas-surface interactions are modeled with a newly developed air-carbon ablation model accounting for oxidation, nitridation, and recombination reactions. In addition, the model is augmented with carbon sublimation reactions experienced at high heating conditions. The chemical state at the surface is tightly coupled with the flow solver, resulting in the improved accuracy and effectiveness of the simulation. The coupled approach is applied to study two experimental test cases conducted at the IHF arc-jet facility at NASA Ames. The predicted results are validated against measured recession, surface, and in-depth temperatures and compared to the prediction of the uncoupled, equilibrium-based approach. Finally, the accuracy of the prediction is explored with respect to the environmental properties, such as the diffusion coefficient, and material thermal conductivity.