Browse > Article
http://dx.doi.org/10.12989/aas.2019.6.3.239

Influence of the Mars atmosphere model on aerodynamics of an entry capsule  

Zuppardi, Gennaro (Department of Industrial Engineering - Aerospace Division, University of Naples "Federico II")
Publication Information
Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science / v.6, no.3, 2019 , pp. 239-256 More about this Journal
Abstract
This study develops a dual purpose: i) evaluating the effects of two different Mars atmosphere models (NASA Glenn and GRAM-2001) on aerodynamics of a capsule (Pathfinder) entering the Mars atmosphere, ii) verifying the feasibility of evaluating the ambient density and pressure by means of the methods by McLaughlin and Cassanto, respectively and therefore to re-build the values provided by the models. The method by McLaughlin relies on the evaluation of the capsule drag coefficient, the method by Cassanto relies on the measurement of pressure at a point on the capsule surface in aerodynamic shadow. The study has been carried out computationally by means of: i) a code integrating the equations of dynamics of the capsule for the computation of the entry trajectory, ii) a DSMC code for the solution of the flow field around the capsule in the altitude interval 50-100 km. The models show consistent differences at altitudes higher than about 40 km. It seems that the GRAM-2001 model is more reliable than the NASA Glenn model. In fact, the NASA Glenn model produces, at high altitude, temperatures that seem to be too low compared with those from the GRAM-2001 model and correspondingly very different aerodynamic conditions in terms of Mach, Reynolds and Knudsen numbers. This produces pretty different capsule drag coefficients by the two models as well as pressure on its surface, making not feasible neither the method by McLaughlin nor that by Cassanto, until a single, reliable model of the Mars atmosphere is not established. The present study verified that the implementation of the Cassanto method in Mars atmosphere should rely (such as it is currently) on pressure obtained experimentally in ground facilities.
Keywords
Mars atmosphere models; pathfinder capsule; computation of entry trajectory; methods evaluating ambient density and pressure; DSMC method;
Citations & Related Records
연도 인용수 순위
  • Reference
1 Anyoji, M., Okamoto, M., Fujita, K., Nagai, H. and Oyama, A. (2017), "Evaluation of aerodynamic performance of Mars airplane in scientific balloon experiment", Fluid Mech. Res. Int., 1(3), 1-7. https://doi.org/10.15406/fmrij.2017.01.00012.
2 Bird, G.A. (1998), Molecular Gas Dynamics and Direct Simulation Monte Carlo Method, Clarendon Press, Oxford, U.K.
3 Bird, G.A. (2005), Visual DSMC Program for Two-Dimensional Flows, DS2V Program User's Guide Ver. 3.3, G.A.B. Consulting Pty Ltd, Sydney, Australia
4 Bird, G.A. (2006), "Sophisticated versus simple DSMC", Proceedings of the 25th International Symposium on Rarefied Gas Dynamics, Saint Petersburg, Russia, July.
5 Bird, G.A., Gallis, M.A., Torczynski, J.R. and Rader, D.J. (2009), "Accuracy and efficiency of the sophisticated direct simulation Monte Carlo algorithm for simulating non-continuum gas flows", Phys. Fluids, 21(1), https://doi.org/10.1063/1.3067865.
6 Bird, G.A. (2012), Visual DSMC program for Two-Dimensional Flows, DS2V Program User's Guide, Ver. 4.5., G.A.B. Consulting Pty Ltd, Sidney, Australia.
7 Bird, G.A. (2013), The DSMC Method, Version 1.1, Amazon, ISBS 9781492112907, Charleston, U.S.A.
8 Braun, R.D. and Manning, R.M. (2006), "Mars exploration entry, descent and landing challenges", IEEE 0075, 1-32.
9 Cassanto, J.M. and Lane, J.W. (1976), "A high-altitude base pressure experiment", AIAA J., 14(8), 1050-1053. https://doi.org/10.2514/3.61440.   DOI
10 Cassanto, J.M. (1973), "A base pressure experiment for determining the atmospheric pressure profile of planets", J. Spacecraft, 10(4), 253-261. https://doi.org/10.2514/3.61875.   DOI
11 Desai, P.N., Prince, J.L., Queen, E.M., Cruz, J.R. and Grover, M.R. (2008), "Entry, descent, and landing performance of the mars phoenix lander", J. Spacecraft Rockets, 48(5), 798-808. https://doi.org/10.2514/1.48239.   DOI
12 Desert, T., Moschetta, J.M. and Bezard, H. (2017), "Aerodynamic design of a Martian micro air vehicle", Proceedings of the 7th European Conference for Aeronautics and Aerospace Sciences, Milan, Italy, July.
13 Justus, C.G. and Johnson, D.L. (2001), Mars Global Reference Atmospheric Model 2001 (Mars-GRAM 2001) User Guide, NASA TM 2001-210961.
14 Fei, H., Jin, X.H.., Lv, J.M. and Cheng, X.L. (2016), "Impact of Martian parameter uncertainties on entry vehicles aerodynamics for hypersonic rarefied conditions", AIP Conference Proc., 1786, 190006.
15 Gallis, M.A., Torczynski, J.R., Rader, D.J. and Bird, G.A. (2009), "Convergence behavior of a new DSMC algorithm", J. Comput. Phys., 228(12), 4532-4548. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcp.2009.03.021.   DOI
16 Jiang, H., Liu, X., Han, G. and Chen, X. (2018), "Hypersonic simulation of Mars entry atmosphere based on gun tunnel", Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Experimental Fluid Mechanics (ICEFM 2018), Munich, Germany, July.
17 McLaughlin, C.A., Mance, S. and Lechtenberg, T. (2011), "Drag coefficient estimation in orbit determination", J. Astronaut. Sci., 58(3), 513-530. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03321183.   DOI
18 NASA Glenn Research Center (1996), Mars Atmosphere Model, file:///C:/MARS/MARSATMOSPHERE/Mars%20Atmosphere%20Model%20%20Metric%20Units.htm.
19 Mehta, R.C. (2011), "Computations of flow field over re-entry modules at high speed", Comput. Simul. Appl., http://www.intechopen.com/articles/show/title/computations-of-flowfield-over-reentry-modules-athigh-speed.
20 Moss, J.N. (1995), "Rarefied flows of planetary entry capsules", AGARD-R-808, 95-129, Special course on "Capsule aerothermodynamics", Rhode-Saint-Genese, Belgium.
21 Raju, M. (2015), "CFD analysis of Mars Phoenix capsules at Mach number 10", J. Aeronaut. Aerospace Eng., 4(1), 1-4.   DOI
22 Russo, G.P. (2011), Aerodynamic Measurements: from Physical Principles to Turnkey Instrumentation, 1st Edition, Woodhead Publishing Limited, Suffolk, U.K.
23 Tang, W., Yang, X.F., Gui, Y.W. and Du, Y.X. (2015), "Aerodynamic prediction and performance analysis for mars science laboratory entry vehicle", Int. J. Aerospace Mech. Eng., 9(6), 1040-1045.
24 Shen, C. (2005), Rarefied Gas Dynamic: Fundamentals, Simulations and Micro Flows, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Germany.
25 Vallerani, E. (1973), "A review of supersonic sphere drag from the continuum to the free molecular flow regime", AGARD CPP 124, Paper 22, 1-15.
26 Viviani, A. and Pezzella, G. (2013), "Non-equilibrium computational flowfield analysis for the design of Mars manned entry vehicles", Prog. Flight Phys., 5, 493-516.   DOI
27 Williams, D.R. (2016), "Mars fact sheet", https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/marsfact.html.
28 Zuppardi, G. and Savino, R. (2015), "DSMC aero-thermo-dynamic analysis of a deployable capsule for mars atmosphere entry", Proceedings of the DSMC15 Conference, Kauai, Hawaii, U.S.A., September.