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Chemical-kinetic Model for Mars Atmosphere Re-entry Applications
The shock layer flow over a blunt body entering a planetary atmosphere at a hypersonic speed will dissociate and partially ionize. A reliable prediction of the flow-field for such application requires a chemical-kinetic model. For Mars atmosphere, the five species Park'94 is considered [1]. The dissociation of CO2 is producing C, CO, CO2, O and O2.

The shock layer flow over a blunt body entering a planetary atmosphere at a hypersonic speed will dissociate and partially ionize. A reliable prediction of the flow-field for such application requires a chemical-kinetic model. For Mars atmosphere, the five species Park'94 is considered [1]. The dissociation of CO2 is producing C, CO, CO2, O and O2.

The Park'94 kinetic model contains 18 equations described in Table 1. The forward and reverse reaction rates for Arrhenius reactions are the following :

Kf (T) = Af Tbf exp ( -Ef /T) [m3 / (kmol . s)]

Kr (T) = Ar Tbr exp ( -Er /T) [m6 / (kmol2 . s)]

Table 1 shows the constants that were used to determine the reaction rates.

figure1 (16K) Table 1. Reactions and constants for reaction rates

This model was applied for the Mars Sample Return Orbiter (TC3 test case [2]) using CFD-FASTRAN. The results are validated by comparison with the reference results obtained with MISTRAL code [4].

Figure 1 compares CFD-FASTRAN™ results (top) and Mistral results reported in [4] (bottom) for Mach number distribution. The results are nearly identical [3]. The shear layer angle and the size and shape of the wake are the same. The wake closure point is indicated by the yellow point (red for Mistral). Figure 2 plots the mass fractions of species along the stagnation line.

figure2 (70K)

References

[1] Park, C., Howe, J., Jaffe, R., Candler, G., "Review of Chemical-Kinetic Problems of Future NASA Missions, II: Mars Entries," Journal of Thermophysics and Heat Transfer, Vol. 8, No. 1, pp. 9-23, 1994.

[2] Charbonnier, J-M., and Omaly, P., TC3-2: Update of the axially symmetric test case for high temperature gas radiation prediction in Mars atmosphere entry, Workshop 2004-Radiation of High Temperature Gas, CNES Report Ref. DCT/TV/PR NT-2004-564, 2004.

[3] Vinteler, D., Megahed M. and Bloch E., TC3-2: Numerical prediction for mars atmosphere entry vehicle using a density based solver, Workshop 2006-Radiation of High Temperature Gas, ESA

[4] Dieudonné, W., Spel, M. and Charbonnier, J-M., "Modeling Sensitivity Analysis for TC3 on the Orbiter Aero-thermal Properties", Proceedings of the 1st International Workshop on Radiation of High Temperature Gases in Atmospheric Entry, Part 2, ESA SP-533, October 2003.

Regards,
Daniel Vinteler
CFD Support Manager - France

 

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