Calculation of aerodynamic heating and ablation of thermal protection system in axisymmetric formulation

Abstract

High-speed aircrafts are exposed to severe aerodynamic heating during flight. Strong aerodynamic heating results in ablation of a thermal protection system (TPS). Ablation of the material leads to a change in the shape of the body, which is reflected in the aerodynamic characteristics of the aircraft. It means that the task of TPS material ablation is a conjugate one. The article presents a numerical method for calculating the ablation and heating of thermal protection system on moving grids. Thermal and power loads were calculated by solving the Navier-Stokes equations. The method was validated on experimental data obtained at the NASA Ames research center. In the experiment, the ablation of a POCO graphite sample was studied in an arc-jet facility. A sublimation regime of graphite ablation was achieved.