During atmospheric (re-)entries, planetary probes encounter huge heat fluxes due to their significant speed (up to 13 km/s for an Earth re-entry). The total heat flux received by the probe can be divided into two main components: a convective one (coming from the conduction and diffusion phenomena occuring in the shock layer) and a radiative one (due to the radiation of certain species). Numerical simulations have been performed for both Titan (Huygens mission) and Earth (Fire II mission) entries. The main parameters influencing the results are the atmosphere composition, the chemical reaction scheme, the transport model and the radiative model. The results obtained gave us information on the flowfield (temperature, pressure, species densities...) and values for the heat fluxes on the wall that are useful for experimental or flight data comparison.

Volume Subject Area:
Fundamentals of Heat and Mass Transfer
Topics:
Computer simulation, Flux (Metallurgy), Heat, Probes, Chemical reactions, Diffusion (Physics), Fire, Flight, Heat conduction, Heat flux, Pressure, Radiation (Physics), Shock (Mechanics), Temperature
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 by ASME
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