HYPERSONIC THERMOPHYSICS CODE (PD-268)

A FLOWFIELD COMPUTER CODE WILL BE DEVELOPED FOR HYPERSONIC AERO-THERMODYNAMIC APPLICATIONS, WITH EMPHASIS ON FINITE-RATE REAL GAS EFFECTS. AT PLANETARY ENTRY AND EARTH RETURN VELOCITIES, DISSOCIATION AND RECOMBINATION OF ATMOSPHERIC MOLECULES AND RADIATIVE PHENOMENA HAVE IMPORTANTEFFECTS ON TRANSPORT PROPERTIES WITHIN THE FLOWFIELD, ON HEAT TRANSFER TO THE VEHICLE, AND ON AERODYNAMIC COEFFICIENTS. THE KEY FEATURE OF THE PROPOSED INNOVATION IS A FULLY IMPLICIT, FULLY COUPLED NUMERICAL INTEGRATION METHOD THAT PROVIDES RELIABLE, STABLE NON-EQUILIBRIUM SOLUTIONS OVER A WIDE RANGE OF CONDITIONS, FROM VERY SLOW REACTIONS TO SITUATIONS WHERE THE CHEMISTRY IS ARBITRARILY CLOSE TO EQUILIBRIUM. A VISCOUS SHOCK LAYER FORMULATION WILL BE ORGANIZED AND IDENTIFIED TO INCLUDE SHOCK STRUCTURE FOR RAREFIED APPLICATIONS, RADIATION COUPLING, ABLATION COUPLING, AND SURFACE CHEMISTRY EFFECTS. IN PHASE I, A NON-EQUILIBRIUM BOUNDARY LAYER CODE WITH KINETICS AND TRANSPORT PROPERTIES APPROPRIATE TO EARTH AND MARS ENTRY WILL BE DEVELOPED. IN PHASE II, THIS WILL BE EXTENDED TO A VISCOUS SHOCK LAYER CODE WITH THE NOTED FEATURES.