Feasibility of Radio Blackout Mitigation in the Braking Phase of AOTV operations
Abstract
An ability to simulate the flowfield produced in the wake of the Aerobraking Orbit Transfer Vehicle (AOTV) is needed to investigate mitigation of the expected ratio blackout by means of injecting SF(6) gas into the flow. This intense shock fronts in the ram flow. Consequently, the free molecular flow, transition flow, and continuum flow are simultaneous present in the AOTV problem. We show that Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DMSC) code can be used to simulate the flowfield in an AOTV wake. The DMSC code produces reasonable results for air only flow, including many of the features know the dominant species controlling the flow near the vehicle, is well mixed with the ambient gas, and is largely confined to the wake. While our results demonstrate the utility of the DMSC code for the blackout problem, we recommend additional effort to performed simulations in a 3-D axisymetric geometry and to anchor our input data to ram flow calculations by NASA-Langley. (RRH)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 1988
- Accession Number
- ADA220260
Entities
People
- Didier Rault
- Edward P. Szuszczewicz
Organizations
- Leidos