Abstract
Mars has only thin atmosphere composed mainly of carbon dioxide that differs significantly from the atmosphere of Earth in terms of characteristics of reentry flows. To connect with the orbiter, the Mars entry capsule is provided with titanium pipes and other units installed on the heat-shield. These units will create significant local interaction flow on the surface of the capsule and cause additional heating on the surface of the shield during the entry of the capsule. With a view to interaction thermal environment issues for the surface of the shield, in this paper, the characteristics of protrusion interaction flow on different location of the shield were studied by means of numerical simulation. Heating mechanisms of protuberances on different location were derived by analyzing characteristic parameters such as local flow velocity, pressure, and Mach number. The results show that the interaction thermal environment of protuberances in the windward area is smaller than that of protuberances in the leeward area, mainly because subsonic flow dominates in the windward area, and the interaction is weak, while in the leeward area, the direction of flow intersects with protuberances to form a boundary layer shear flow, which results in a stronger interaction before the protuberances.
Highlights
Mars is a planet that has the most Earth-like natural environment currently explored by scientists
When protuberances present on the surface of the vehicle, hypersonic inflow will create a detached shock wave in front of protuberances, which interacts with boundary layers to generate complex shock wave-shock wave interaction around the protuberance that leads to the separation and reattachment of flow, causing additional interaction heating
The mechanism of protrusion interaction thermal environment on the surface of the Mars entry capsule was studied, the characteristics of flow at the typical flow conditions were derived by means of numerical simulations, and its generation mechanism and distribution rules were analyzed
Summary
Mars is a planet that has the most Earth-like natural environment currently explored by scientists. The shield will retain mechanisms connected to the orbital module such as titanium pipes and other units These units form a protrusion on the surface of the shield, which creates a complex interaction thermal environment on the shield, producing additional aeroheating on the surface of the shield and seriously affecting the performance of the thermal protection system. Pan [5] investigated the scope of influence of the protrusion and the thermal environment of its interaction region through combination of theoretical analysis and numerical simulation and derived the quantitative relationships between the range of separation regions and the geometrical characteristics of protuberances. Despite allowing for simulation of complex flows, numerical simulation mainly takes Earth’s atmosphere as principal subject of research, and there are few studies on the thermal environment disturbed by protrusions in the Mars entry.
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