Ablation and Thermal Response Program for Spacecraft Heatshield Analysis

An implicit ablation and thermal response program is presented for simulation of one-dimensional transient thermal energy transport in a multilayer stack of isotropic materials and structure which can ablate from a front surface and decompose in-depth. The governing equations and numerical procedures for solution are summarized. Solutions are compared with those of an existing code, the Aerotherm Charring Material Thermal Response and Ablation Program, and also with arcjet data Numerical experiments show that the new code is numerically more stable and solves a much wider range of problems compared with the older code. To demonstrate its capability, applications for thermal analysis and sizing of aeroshell heatshields for planetary missions, such as Stardust, Mars Microprobe (Deep Space n), Saturn Entry Probe, and Mars 2001, using advanced light-weight ceramic ablators developed at NASA Ames Research Center, are presented and discussed.

[1]  C. B. Moyer,et al.  An analysis of the coupled chemically reacting boundary layer and charring ablator. Part 2 - Finite difference solution for the in-depth response of charring materials considering surface chemical and energy balances , 1968 .

[2]  Yih-Kanq Chen,et al.  Forebody TPS sizing with radiation and ablation for the Stardust Sample Return Capsule , 1997 .

[3]  William M. Congdon,et al.  Mars Pathfinder entry temperature data, aerothermal heating, and heatshield material response , 1998 .

[4]  F. Milos,et al.  Methodology for full-body TPS sizing of Access-to-Space vehicles , 1996 .

[5]  Ethiraj Venkatapathy,et al.  Trajectory, aerothermal conditions, and thermal protection system mass for the MARS 2001 aerocapture mission , 1997 .

[6]  Daniel J. Rasky,et al.  "TPSX: Thermal Protection System Expert and Material Property Database" , 1997 .

[7]  Michael E. Tauber,et al.  AEROTHERMODYNAMICS OF THE STARDUST SAMPLE RETURN CAPSULE , 1998 .

[8]  Thomas H. Squire,et al.  Thermostructural Analysis of X-34 Wing Leading-Edge Tile Thermal Protection System , 1999 .

[9]  H. Tran,et al.  Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablators (PICA) for Discovery class missions , 1996 .

[10]  F. S. Milos,et al.  Analysis of Galileo Probe Heatshield Ablation and Temperature Data , 1999 .

[11]  M. E. Tauber,et al.  Mars Pathfinder Trajectory Based Heating and Ablation Calculations , 1995 .

[12]  Yih-Kanq Chen,et al.  Navier-Stokes solutions with surface catalysis for Martian atmospheric entry , 1992 .

[13]  F. Milos,et al.  Comprehensive model for multicomponent ablation thermochemistry , 1997 .