A Multiphysics Material Response Prediction Toolset with Improved Efficiency and Fidelity for Thermal Protection Systems

A key challenge in current methods for the design and evaluation of thermal protection systems (TPS) in high-speed flight is the lack of an effective and accurate ability to predict material responses such as ablation. Underlying obstacles to a predictive modeling and simulation (M&S) capability are the limited ability of current ablation response models (ARMs) to represent complex geometries and loading environments, and these ARMs often require collecting material-specific empirical data, typically with high uncertainty. To overcome these limitations, ATA Engineering has created a modeling framework that couples an ARM to a high-fidelity CFD solver as well as a nonlinear structural analysis code for integrated multiphysics simulation of fluid-structure-material interaction (FSMI) with reduced reliance on empirical data and enhanced complexity and realism. In the proposed effort, ATA will enhance our current FSMI Toolset with several innovations focused on improving the computational efficiency and the fidelity of these fully coupled simulations of aerothermoelastic and material response in extreme environments. Innovations will include development of an adaptive coupling time-step feature, adaptation of computational cost saving algorithms from the field of combustion analysis, and enhancements to current ARM software tools for modeling of more complex relevant TPS material architectures and thermochemical responses. Innovations will be benchmarked against existing FSMI Toolset capabilities to assess accuracy impacts and computational cost benefits, as well as relevant ground test data from concurrent software verification and validation programs. Phase I efforts will build toward a Phase II technology demonstration focused on modeling of ablation due to hypersonic aeroheating across full flight trajectories.