Simulation of Ablation in a Sounding Rocket Thermal Protection System Via an Interface Tracking Method with Two Moving Fronts

• Autor(a) principal: Machado,Humberto Araujo
• Data de Publicação: 2013
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Journal of Aerospace Technology and Management (Online)
• Texto Completo: http://old.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S2175-91462013000400409
• topic: TPS; ablation; moving boundary; computational simulation; sounding rocket

ABSTRACT: In this work, an interface tracking method is employed to simulate the ablative process in the region near the stagnation point of the VSB-30 sounding rocket Thermal Protection System (TPS). The ablation model considers the presence of two-fronts, the char-melting and the pyrolysis fronts. The results for the proposed model are compared to the ones obtained from the traditional one-front model, which supposes a constant ablation temperature. Results show that the one-front model overestimates the ablation period, mass loss and the internal temperature after the flight. The increase in the accuracy with this model shall provide a better dimensioning of the TPS, reducing its weight and cost.