Influence of Hall Effect on Electrodynamic Heat Shield System for Reentry Vehicles

Abstract

The influence of the Hall effect on the magnetic flow control to a reentry vehicle with a hemispherical nose and the imposed dipole magnetic field was investigated. For this purpose, a parametric study for the Hall parameter was conducted. The present result shows that the Hall effect drastically affects the electric potential distribution and electric current pattern inside the shock layer, depending on the vehicle surface conductivity, but it does not affect the current strength in the circumferential direction in the case of the insulating wall. As a result, the shock-standoff distance does not change, even if the Hall effect is significant when the vehicle surface is regarded as an insulating wall. The present parametric study clarified that this conclusion is applicable in a wide variety of the Hall parameter and enables us to get an insight of the mechanism behind the phenomenon. This conclusion suggests that, if the vehicle surface is regarded as an insulating wall, the magnetic flow control for the reentry vehicle will prove to still be a useful technology, even when the Hall effect is taken into account.