Plume Simulation, Contamination, and Microfluidics (Preprint)
Abstract
This research project pursues basic understanding of rarefied gas flows, leading to Air Force tools for plumes, spacecraft, and micro-devices. It develops, applies, and validates kinetic and molecular-level models of improved physical realism for nonequilibrium processes such as collisional interaction of gases, gas-particulate mixtures, and gas surface interaction that arise in high temperature, multi-species, chemically reacting rarefied flowfields such as rocket plumes. These phenomena are not accurately addressed by standard engineering tools and require improved understanding of the basic physics. A number of closely related research issues arise in the area of rarefied flows on the micro length scales, including micropropulsion flows. The key computational tool used in this effort is the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method and related kinetic solvers. Recently, a 3D multi-phase DSMC capability has been developed and applied to study the interaction of solid propellant plumes with rarefied atmosphere. A parallel 3D Monte Carlo numerical tool for modeling radiation in multi-phase flows has been developed; the integration of fluid and radiation tools is planned in the future. New optical micropropulsion concepts have been formulated based on non-resonant interaction of optical lattice and carrier gas. Spacecraft contamination effects have been studied, and efficient numerical models for surface roughness were proposed.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2006
- Accession Number
- ADA458240
Entities
People
- Alina Alexeenko
- Andrew D. Ketsdever
- Cedric Ngalande
- Ingrid Wysong
- Marc Young
- Natalia Gimselshein
- Sergey F. Gimelshein
- Taylor Lilley
Organizations
- Air Force Research Laboratory