Direct Simulation Monte Carlo Solver Research Articles

Influence of Rarefaction Degree and Aft-Body Geometry on Supersonic Flows

During atmospheric entry, super-/hypersonic vehicles cross distinct atmospheric layers characterized by large density variations and thus experience different flow regimes ranging from free molecular, transition, slip, to continuous regimes. Due to the distinct modeling strategy between these regimes and complex physical phenomena appearing near the vehicles (boundary-layer/shock interaction, base-flow recirculation, etc.), assessing their aerodynamic properties may be difficult. The present work focuses on supersonic flows around sharp-base geometries in both continuous and slip-flow regimes and aims at highlighting the influence of both rarefaction degree and base geometry on the vehicles’ aerodynamic features. For this purpose, three axisymmetric cone-cylinder geometries with right-angled, rounded, or flared rear parts are considered. Flow visualization, pressure, and drag measurements are carried out at Mach number Ma=4 and Knudsen numbers ranging from Kn=4×10−4 to 1×10−2 in the supersonic rarefied MARHy wind tunnel. The experimental data are compared with numerical results of simulations performed with a continuous-flow Navier–Stokes (NS) solver and two rarefied flows codes: a discrete-ordinate Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook (K) solver and a direct simulation Monte Carlo (SPARTA) solver. While the NS solver overestimates frictional drag as Kn rises, the rarefied K and SPARTA results show satisfactory agreement with experimental data. The latter numerical results highlight the main effects of rarefaction: as Kn increases, shocks become more diffuse, skin friction strengthens (leading to a significant increase in drag coefficients), and the extent of the base-recirculation decreases. Regarding the aft-body geometry, its influence on the base recirculation vanishes with increasing Kn.

Establishment of particle motion model and study of particle volume fraction distribution in the turbo air classifier based on DSMC

In order to study the particles' motion law and collision behavior in the flow field of the turbo air classifier, A particle motion simulation platform is developed using Compute Unified Device Architecture (CUDA) based on the Visual Studio. The particle-eddy interaction model, the particle-wall collision model, and the inter-particle collision Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) solver are implemented. The results show that the deviation between calculated cut size d50 and experimental d50 using DSMC is smallest compared to DSMC, DDPM and DPM. DSMC has better acceleration performance compared to DDPM. The more particles need to be calculated, the more significant this advantage is. The influences of feeding rate on particle volume fractions and inter-particle collision number are analyzed. The increase of feeding rate leads to the increase of the particle volume fractions and inter-particle collision number.

Comprehensive Evaluation of the Massively Parallel Direct Simulation Monte Carlo Kernel “Stochastic Parallel Rarefied-Gas Time-Accurate Analyzer” in Rarefied Hypersonic Flows—Part A: Fundamentals

The Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method, introduced by Graeme Bird over five decades ago, has become a crucial statistical particle-based technique for simulating low-density gas flows. Its widespread acceptance stems from rigorous validation against experimental data. This study focuses on four validation test cases known for their complex shock–boundary and shock–shock interactions: (a) a flat plate in hypersonic flow, (b) a Mach 20.2 flow over a 70-degree interplanetary probe, (c) a hypersonic flow around a flared cylinder, and (d) a hypersonic flow around a biconic. Part A of this paper covers the first two cases, while Part B will discuss the remaining cases. These scenarios have been extensively used by researchers to validate prominent parallel DSMC solvers, due to the challenging nature of the flow features involved. The validation requires meticulous selection of simulation parameters, including particle count, grid density, and time steps. This work evaluates the SPARTA (Stochastic Parallel Rarefied-gas Time-Accurate Analyzer) kernel’s accuracy against these test cases, highlighting its parallel processing capability via domain decomposition and MPI communication. This method promises substantial improvements in computational efficiency and accuracy for complex hypersonic vehicle simulations.

Modeling of the electronic excited states in high-temperature flows

This article introduces a novel model for describing the electronic excited states in the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) technique. The model involves the coupling the vibrational and electronic modes of molecular species, enabling each electronic excited state to excite its unique vibrational quantum levels. Numerical techniques are developed for equilibrium and post-collision sampling, as well as for measuring the internal temperature. The DSMC results demonstrate excellent agreement with theoretical predictions, providing verification of the successful implementation in a DSMC solver. For important thermophysical properties of molecular oxygen, such as the specific heat capacity, it is shown that the new model provides a better prediction than a compilation of past studies in comparison to the standard uncoupled approach in DSMC. The model is then applied to simulate a canonical nonreactive oxygen hypersonic flow past a cylindrical body. The population distribution of electronic excited states exhibit significant deviation from the standard approach typically used in the coupling between DSMC and radiation transport solvers.

A statistical boundary for 3D rarefied flows through meshes: implementation to a new version of dsmcFoam+ and wind tunnel validation

AbstractThe Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method has become a standard tool for rarefied aerodynamics and microchannel flows. However, the performance benefits of DSMC, such as adaptive grid sizes and number of particles, are constrained by the need to resolve small geometric details of mesh applications within relatively large simulation volumes. The requirement for a sufficient number of particles in even the smallest cells imposes a significant computational burden. A novel set of cyclic statistical boundary conditions is proposed to address the computational bottleneck associated with simulating micrometre-scale structures prevalent in atmospheric and space research under rarefied flow conditions. These conditions account for the geometric parameters of a geometric mesh and the angular dependency of impacting particles, aiming to alleviate the computational challenges posed by conventional approaches. Validation against wind tunnel measurements demonstrates excellent agreement for one of the implemented boundaries, able to simulate fine meshes for conditions of rocket soundings in the Mesosphere. The newly developed boundary conditions are implemented within the advanced DSMC solver, dsmcFoam+ framework. For this study, the solver is ported from OpenFOAM® version 2.4.0 to the OpenFOAM® version v2306 to leverage recent code developments, particularly in dynamic meshes, load balancing, and barycentric particle tracking. This advancement enhances the capabilities of DSMC simulations, offering improved fidelity and accuracy in capturing rarefied flow phenomena.

Microscale Thermal–Structural Modeling for Carbon Fibers Subjected to a Hypersonic Boundary Layer

With regard to the thermal protection system, the thermal–structural responses of modern ablative materials are of primary importance in many aspects, including material selection and sizing. Due to the intricate nature of their porous structure and complicated thermal conditions they are subjected to, ablative materials may exhibit unexpected behavior, which can potentially lead to material failure. In this study, two solvers—a direct simulation Monte Carlo solver and a finite-volume-based material response solver—are coupled together to predict the microscale thermal–structural performance of a thermal protection system material like phenolic impregnated carbon ablator. In this approach, individual fibers are modeled at the microscale, which provides valuable knowledge of porous media behavior. Nonuniform boundary conditions, including the heat flux and external force, are captured by the direct simulation Monte Carlo solver, and the detailed thermal and structural performance of the fiber is captured by the material response solver. The results show that individual fibers do not fail based on the temperature gradient and applied aerodynamic forces. However, it is shown that the attachment points of the fibers are the most vulnerable. This vulnerability can potentially lead to a breakdown of the binders, which would separate fibers and cause material failure.

Predicting lift and drag coefficients during hypersonic Mars reentry using hyStrath

During hypersonic reentry, a spacecraft experiences several different fluid flow regimes, which usually require the application of different software frameworks to simulate the respective regimes. This study aims to evaluate the hyStrath library for predicting aerodynamic lift and drag coefficients of complex three-dimensional (3D) geometries during hypersonic Mars reentry, using flight data of the Viking 1 mission as reference. A range of altitudes (h=30−140 km) and Mach numbers (M=13−24) where flight data is available is considered, covering the rarefied, transitional, and continuum fluid flow regimes. The hyStrath library contains a set of modified solvers and state-of-the-art thermophysical and chemistry models within the framework of OpenFOAM, dedicated to modeling high-enthalpy hypersonic flow problems. Depending on the flow regime, the computational fluid dynamics solver hy2Foam or direct-simulation Monte Carlo solver dsmcFoam+ are employed in the study. Because hyStrath is based on OpenFOAM, it allows the use of an unstructured adaptive mesh refinement approach for arbitrary geometries. We obtain excellent results throughout all investigated flow regimes and Mach numbers with an average deviation of 1.5% and 2% from the measured lift and drag coefficients, respectively. The applicability of the framework for accurately modeling both rarefied and continuum Mars reentry problems of complex 3D geometries such as the Viking capsule is demonstrated.

A hybrid Gaussian mixture/DSMC approach to study the Fourier thermal problem

In rarefied gas dynamics scattering kernels deserve special attention since they contain all the essential information about the effects of physical and chemical properties of the gas–solid surface interface on the gas scattering process. However, to study the impact of the gas–surface interactions on the large-scale behavior of fluid flows, these scattering kernels need to be integrated in larger-scale models like Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC). In this work, the Gaussian mixture (GM) model, an unsupervised machine learning approach, is utilized to establish a scattering kernel for monoatomic (Ar) and diatomic (H2\\documentclass[12pt]{minimal} \\usepackage{amsmath} \\usepackage{wasysym} \\usepackage{amsfonts} \\usepackage{amssymb} \\usepackage{amsbsy} \\usepackage{mathrsfs} \\usepackage{upgreek} \\setlength{\\oddsidemargin}{-69pt} \\begin{document}$$\\hbox {H}_{2}$$\\end{document}) gases directly from Molecular Dynamics (MD) simulations data. The GM scattering kernel is coupled to a pure DSMC solver to study isothermal and non-isothermal rarefied gas flows in a system with two parallel walls. To fully examine the coupling mechanism between the GM scattering kernel and the DSMC approach, a one-to-one correspondence between MD and DSMC particles is considered here. Benchmarked by MD results, the performance of the GM-DSMC is assessed against the Cercignani–Lampis–Lord (CLL) kernel incorporated into DSMC simulation (CLL-DSMC). The comparison of various physical and stochastic parameters shows the better performance of the GM-DSMC approach. Especially for the diatomic system, the GM-DSMC outperforms the CLL-DSMC approach. The fundamental superiority of the GM-DSMC approach confirms its potential as a multi-scale simulation approach for accurately measuring flow field properties in systems with highly nonequilibrium conditions.

Numerical study of gas–surface interface effects due to transpiration in a hypersonic flow over a blunt body

This paper investigates the impact of transpiration on a hypersonic flow over a cylinder, considering different degrees of rarefaction. The study analyzes the interaction between freestream argon gas flow at Mach 5 and transpiring argon gas at the fluid–solid interface at a velocity of 10 m/s. Freestream Knudsen numbers considered are 0.002, 0.01, 0.05, and 0.25, spanning from a continuum to rarefied regime. Flow simulations utilize the open-source direct simulation Monte Carlo solver, Stochastic PArallel Rarefied-gas Time-accurate Analyzer. The influence of transpiration on flow and surface properties is examined by comparing non-transpiration and transpiration cases. At all regimes, transpiration increases the normal shock stand-off distance, while a comparison of flow properties along the stagnation line reveals a reduction in the velocity and an increase in the post-shock temperature with transpiration. Surface heat flux comparison indicates that transpiring gas reduces heat flux on the cylinder's upstream-facing front surface at all Knudsen numbers. However, at Kn∞ = 0.25, a shift occurs, and surface heat flux starts increasing locally from the top/bottom point on the cylinder surface through the rear face of the cylinder. Furthermore, a test for the validity of the continuum-based blowing correction correlation function reveals the failure of the empirical model, even in the continuum regime at Kn∞ = 0.002, casting doubt on its applicability to vehicles with curvilinear blunt-body shapes. Additionally, a sensitivity analysis demonstrates that transpiring gas with a number density an order of magnitude higher than the freestream reduces stagnation peak heat flux by nearly 30%, while transpiring gas with a temperature two times higher than the freestream shows a ∼13% reduction.

Micro-nozzle flow and thrust prediction with high-density ratio using DSMC selection limiter

Introduction:A Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) solver with a modified collisional routine is used to investigate an argon gas flow through a millimeter-scaled thruster nozzle with high-density ratios.Method:The limiter scheme, denoted as the constant selection limiter (CSL), limits the possible number of selected collisional pairs to a constant value in accordance with the present simulation particles in the cell.Results:Results of the CSL scheme are compared with the experimental and numerical results of a compressible Navier–Stokes solver and discussed in comparison with baseline DSMC simulations. The influence of collision limitation by the CSL is discussed on the stagnation pressure of the thruster and on thrust and specific impulse prediction. The application of the limiter scheme makes the prediction of stagnation pressure challenging in some cases.Discussion:In contrast, thrust and specific impulse are predicted well, and their study remains valid. Investigated mass flow rates are 0.178 mg/s ≤m.≤ 71.360 mg/s, and flow Knudsen numbers below Kn = 0.01 and over Kn = 10 are present. Near atmospheric conditions are reached inside the thruster, generating pressure ratios up to 3,741 along the nozzle. The computational performance of the scheme is also discussed, and speed-up factors up to 0.51 are achieved.

Rarefied gas effects on hypersonic flow over a transpiration-cooled flat plate

This paper presents the effect of blowing (transpiration flow) on hypersonic flow over a flat plate at different flow regimes. The investigation involves the study of the interaction between the free stream flow of argon gas at Mach 5 and transpiring gas introduced at the fluid–solid interface. The freestream Knudsen number considered for the present analysis are 0.002, 0.01, 0.05, and 0.25, extending from continuum to rarefied through transitional flow conditions. Flow simulations are performed using the open source particle-based direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) solver called Stochastic PArallel Rarefied-gas Time-accurate Analyzer (SPARTA). In the DSMC framework, the transpiring gases are introduced as jets with specified velocity, number density, and temperature uniformly throughout the surface in the direction normal to the surface. The variation in flow field properties, such as density, temperature, and velocity with and without transpiration, is studied. The influence of rarefaction on surface heat flux distribution is studied at different flow Knudsen numbers. Furthermore, the effect of introducing the transpiring gas at different densities into the flow field is investigated and its impact on the surface heat flux is discussed. It is interesting to note that in certain cases, the heat flux actually increases locally as a result of the interaction between transpiring gas and freestream flow.

Vibrational Modeling with an Anharmonic Oscillator Model in Direct Simulation Monte Carlo

Vehicles undergoing hypersonic speed experience extreme aerothermodynamic conditions. Real gas effects cannot be neglected, and thus internal degrees of freedom of molecules being partially/fully excited must be carefully predicted in order to accurately capture the physics of the flowfield. Within direct simulation Monte Carlo solvers, a harmonic oscillator (HO) model, where the quantum levels are evenly spaced, is typically used for vibrational energy. A more realistic model is an anharmonic oscillator (aHO), in which the energy between quantum levels is not evenly spaced. In this work, the Morse-aHO model is compared against HO. The Morse-aHO model is implemented in the dsmcFoam+ solver, and the numerical results are in excellent agreement with analytical and potential energy surface solutions for the partition function, mean vibrational energy, and degrees of freedom. A method for measuring the vibrational temperature of the gas when using the anharmonic model in a direct simulation Monte Carlo solver is presented, which is essential for returning macroscopic fields. For important thermophysical properties of molecular oxygen, such as the specific heat capacity, it is shown that the aHO and HO models begin to diverge at temperatures above 1000 K, making the use of HO questionable for all but low-enthalpy flows. For the same gas, including the electronic energy mode significantly improves the accuracy of the specific heat prediction, compared to experimental data, for temperatures above 2000 K. For relaxation from a state of thermal nonequilibrium, it is shown that the aHO model results in a slightly lower equilibrium temperature. When applied to hypersonic flow over a cylinder, the aHO model results in a smaller shock standoff distance and lower peak temperatures.

SPARTACUS: An open-source unified stochastic particle solver for the simulation of multiscale nonequilibrium gas flows

Recently, a unified stochastic particle (USP) method [14] has been developed for the simulation of multiscale nonequilibrium gas flows. Compared with the conventional stochastic particle methods, such as the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method, USP can be applied with much larger time steps and cell sizes as it couples the effects of particle movements and collisions. To extend the applicability of USP to complex nonequilibrium gas flows, we develop a USP solver referred to as SPARTACUS within the framework of SPARTA, which is a widely used software based on the DSMC method for the simulation of rarefied gas flows. Inheriting from SPARTA, SPARTACUS is parallelized with the message passing interface (MPI), and it is open-source under the GNU General Public License (GPL) and released in an online repository with essential documentation, tutorial examples, and benchmark cases. To evaluate the performance of SPARTACUS, the test cases cover from one to three dimensional flows with a wide range of the Knudsen number and Mach number, including Couette flow, lid-driven cavity flow, hypersonic flow past a cylinder, and supersonic flow around a blunt body. The results obtained by SPARTACUS in the rarefied and continuum regimes are in good agreement with DSMC and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) results, respectively. Moreover, SPARTACUS has significant computational efficiency advantage over traditional DSMC solvers, especially for three-dimensional nonequilibrium gas flows. In addition, SPARTACUS shows comparable parallel efficiency with SPARTA, so it is promising to be applied with high performance computing for the simulation of complex multiscale gas flows encountered in engineering problems. Program summaryProgram Title: SPARTACUSCPC Library link to program files:https://doi.org/10.17632/pyb343w7zv.1Developer's repository link:https://github.com/KKFeng/spartacusLicensing provisions: GNU General Public License version 2Programming language: C++External routines/libraries: SPARTA (http://sparta.sandia.gov/)Nature of problem: Multiscale simulation of nonequilibrium gas flows using unified stochastic particle method.Solution method: Unified Stochastic Particle (USP) method.

The effect of increasing rarefaction on the formation of Edney shock interaction patterns: type-I to type-VI

A shock–shock interaction problem can arise in high-speed vehicles where an oblique shock from one part of the body impinges on a bow shock from a different part of the body. The nature of the interaction can change as the vehicle increases in altitude to a more rarefied environment. In this work, the outcomes of a numerical study investigating the formation of Edney shock patterns from type-I to type-VI as a result of shock–shock interactions at different rarefaction levels are presented. The computations are conducted with a direct simulation Monte Carlo solver for a free-stream flow at a Mach number of 10. In shock–shock interaction problems, both geometrical and rarefaction parameters determine what type of Edney pattern is formed. The region on the shock impinged surface that experiences enhanced thermo-mechanical loads increases when the free-stream flow becomes more rarefied, but the peak values decrease. It is known that these shock interactions can have unsteady behavior in the continuum regime; the current work shows that although increasing rarefaction tends to move the flow toward steady behavior, under some conditions the flow remains unsteady.Graphical abstract

Design and optimisation of a passive Atmosphere-Breathing Electric Propulsion (ABEP) intake

In order to extend the orbital lifetime of spacecraft operating in Very-Low Earth Orbit (VLEO), Atmosphere-Breathing Electric Propulsion (ABEP) can be employed for atmospheric drag compensation. The concept is based on the ingestion of rarefied atmospheric particles to be used as propellant for an electric thruster, thereby removing the need for onboard propellant. The present paper aims to design and analyse a passive ABEP intake optimised for the RF Helicon-based Plasma Thruster (IPT), which is selected as the most promising system due to its electrodeless design, as it removes the issue of thruster corrosion, and reduced susceptibility to atmospheric variations. This is achieved by implementing the analytical model, referred to as the Balancing Model (BM), along with its main performance parameters. The Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) solver dsmcFoam+ is thus employed to simulate the transmission probability of cylinders and hexagonal prisms with non-zero entrance velocity, yielding a mean percentage error of 2% when compared to independent DSMC results. In addition, a novel DSMC transmittance investigation of square prisms is performed. Various design configurations are optimised for circular and hexagonal intakes based on the functional requirements of the thruster, leading to a maximum collection efficiency of 45% for a cylindrical intake with a hexagonal honeycomb. The optimal intake is hence simulated via DSMC, showing a good accuracy with the BM with or without intermolecular collisions, yielding a percentage error of 0.22% in the former case and 5.53% in the latter one. The variation of incidence flow angle, accommodation coefficient and thruster transmission probability is finally investigated, and the results are validated by the agreement shown with values retrieved from the literature.

On the nonlinear thermal stress, thermal creep, and thermal edge flows in triangular cavities

Here, rarefied thermally driven flow is investigated in two-dimensional equilateral triangular cavities with different uniform wall temperatures. We used three different solvers, i.e., the direct simulation Monte Carlo solver, discrete unified gas kinetic scheme solver, and continuum set of equations of a slow non-isothermal flow solver. Two main cases were considered; in the first case, the cavity's base is considered hot, and the other sides were set cold. In the second case, the right half of the bottom wall was regarded as a diffuse reflector with high temperature, while the left half of the bottom border was set as a specular reflector. The adjacent side walls were set cold with diffuse reflector boundary conditions. The imposed temperature difference/wall boundary condition induces various vortices in the geometry. In case 1, we observe that principal vortices appearing in the triangle are due to nonlinear thermal stress effects, and the thermal creep effects cause other smaller, confined ones. In case 2, a thermal edge flow is set up from the specular wall on the way to the diffusive hot wall, creating a large vortex in the geometry. As the Knudsen number decreases, another small vortex appears near the left cold border.

HALO3D: An All-Mach Approach to Hypersonic Flows Simulation

This paper presents HALO3D, a CFD code simulating the wide range of Mach numbers a hypervelocity vehicle experiences. HALO3D is composed of (a) a RANS edge-based Finite Element (FE) solver modelling high-velocity thermo-chemical non-equilibrium flows, (b) an electromagnetic interactions solver, (c) an ablation module, (d) a Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) solver for the rarefied regime, seamlessly linked to the continuum one, and (e) a powerful automatic mesh optimiser finely capturing the many singular hypersonic flow phenomena. Verification and validation simulations for two- and three-dimensional hypersonic flows over a flat plate, a cylinder, a blunt conical body, re-entry capsules, and a waverider geometry demonstrate accurate aerothermodynamic predictions in a wide range of Knudsen numbers, complex geometries and multiphysics.

Drag and lift coefficients of ellipsoidal particles under rarefied flow conditions.

The capability to simulate a two-way coupled interaction between a rarefied gas and an arbitrary-shaped colloidal particle is important for many practical applications, such as aerospace engineering, lung drug delivery, and semiconductor manufacturing. By means of numerical simulations based on the direct-simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method, we investigate the influence of the orientation of the particle and rarefaction on the drag and lift coefficients, in the case of prolate and oblate ellipsoidal particles immersed in a uniform ambient flow. This is done by modeling the solid particles using a cut-cell algorithm embedded within our DSMC solver. In this approach, the surface of the particle is described by its analytical expression and the microscopic gas-solid interactions are computed exactly using a ray-tracing technique. The measured drag and lift coefficients are used to extend the correlations, based on the sine-squared drag law, available in the continuum regime to the rarefied regime, focusing on the transitional and free-molecular regimes. The functional forms of the correlations for the ellipsoidal particles are chosen as a generalization from the spherical case. We show that the fits over the data from numerical simulations can be extended to regimes outside the simulated range of Kn. Our approach allows to achieve a higher precision when compared with existing predictive models from the literature. Finally, we underline the importance of this work in providing correlations for nonspherical particles that can be used for point-particle Euler-Lagrangian simulations to address the problem of contamination from finite-size particles in high-tech mechanical systems.

Effect of lunar landing on its surface, surrounding environment and hardware: A numerical perspective

With renewed interest in lunar exploration, soft landing on the Moon has gained prominence in the recent past. Most of the modern-day landers use throttleable thrusters to make a safe and soft landing. However, the jet plume produced by the exhaust of these thrusters creates disturbance on the lunar surface which first leads to surface disturbance and subsequently create damage by the ejected particles to the surroundings and hardware present in the vicinity of the landing site. Understanding this disturbance and assessing the damage is significant both for science as well as mission safety, particularly, keeping in view the plans for ISRU (In-situ Resource Utilisation)/Lunar outpost activities in future. In the present study, an attempt is made to assess the extent of damage caused to the surrounding hardware left by an earlier landing in the vicinity of the landing site. A damage model in conjunction with plume dynamics and its interaction with the lunar surface is used to arrive at the estimates. A Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) solver is used for the analysis of plume dynamics and gaseous interactions of the plume with the in-situ lunar soil. The output of the DSMC solver is employed to quantify the ejecta parameters such as eject velocity, mass flux rate, ejecta kinematics, which are used to estimate the expected damage to a lunar outpost or hardware present in its vicinity. Estimates are made on the total amount of damage (defined as the amount of lunar regolith ejected from the surface in to the surrounding environment) at different stages of landing, ejecta kinematics and overall volume of pit/dent formed on the surface of surrounding hardware due to the high velocity ejecta particles. The study considers a typical test case using a landing trajectory of a small class lander mission for these calculations and presents a picture of surface disturbance, ejecta profile and damage that could happen to the surroundings up to few 100s of meters. An ejecta amount of 7.5 ​kg beneath the lander and a damage of 1500 ​mm3 to the surrounding hardware (situated at 100m from landing site) is estimated from the configuration considered in the present study. Although the disturbance and damage caused due to small class landers seems to be minimal, large class landers and landing in a close vicinity of an earlier landing would cause significant threat to the existing hardware which needs to be mitigated for all future lunar ISRU/outpost activities.

Simulation of the orbital decay of a spacecraft in low Earth orbit due to aerodynamic drag

AbstractOrbiting objects in space are exposed to the risk of collision with space debris over their lifetime. Space debris orbiting in space experiences orbital decay due to various orbital perturbations. This work considers only orbital perturbations due to aerodynamic forces, which spacecraft experience due to the presence of a rarefied atmosphere, causing tumbling motion and orbital decay. Analysis of the orbital decay of a spacecraft is carried out by considering the variation of the drag coefficient as a function of its shape, motion and angle-of-attack. An in-house Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) solver is modified for aerodynamic analysis of a spacecraft orbiting in the free molecular regime in low Earth orbit. In addition, an orbital dynamics model is developed to simulate the tumbling motion of a spacecraft and its orbital decay. The orbital decay trajectory is predicted for two sample spacecrafts using the aerodynamic coefficients obtained from the in-house DSMC solver as inputs to the orbital decay model. This study analyses and explores in detail the effects of the aerodynamic coefficients and shape of a spacecraft on its orbital decay.