Experimental and Numerical Study of Spacecraft Contamination Problems Associated With Gas and Gas-Droplet Thruster Plume Flows

Abstract

The project consists of two large parts. The first part is the study of plume flows escaping into vacuum, and the second part deals with gasdroplet flows. These two parts are united by a common area of research, namely, contamination problems of space station surfaces due to thruster firing. The objective of the first part is accurate prediction of force and heat loads and contamination due to interaction of thruster plumes with the spacecraft surface. This requires a detailed knowledge of the plume structure. For this purpose, a software system SMILE (Statistical Modeling In Low-density Environment) is developed for modeling plume flows. This system is based on the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method and incorporates economical numerical schemes of the DSMC method majorant frequency scheme, advanced models that describe energy transfer in the case of collisions of diatomic and polyatomic molecules, possibilities of parallelization, and models for chemically reacting flows of polyatomic gases. An important aspect associated with this activity is the use of advanced object-oriented approaches for the development of the SMILE system. The objective of the second part is an experimental and numerical study of a two-phase gas-droplet flow arising in the case of simultaneous exhaustion of liquid and gas into vacuum. This problem is closely related to the processes of backflow contamination of spacecraft surfaces by thruster plumes with a fuel film used for cooling the inner surface of the nozzle. The main attention is paid to studying the behavior of droplets into which the liquid is decomposed at the initial stage of droplet motion and to the interaction of droplets with a freely expanding gas plume.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 17, 2006
Accession Number
ADA455400

Entities

People

  • Mikhail S. Ivanov

Organizations

  • Russian Academy of Sciences

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms
  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Ground and Sea Platforms
  • Space
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aerodynamic Characteristics
  • Boundary Layer
  • Chemical Reactions
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Computational Science
  • Energy Transfer
  • Flow Visualization
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Fluid Flow
  • Heat Transfer
  • Hydrodynamics
  • Measurement
  • Mechanical Properties
  • Monte Carlo Method
  • Physics Laboratories
  • Space Stations
  • Spacecraft

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Aerospace Propulsion Engineering.
  • Combustion and Flow Dynamics.
  • Molecular Photonics/Laser Physics

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster