Supersonic Retropropulsion CFD Analysis of a Reusable Vertical Landing Rocket
Author
Rincon Perez, Mario Javier
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2018
Submitted on
2018-06-01
Pages
81
Abstract
At kunne genbruge rakettrin og dermed give bredere adgang til rummet afhænger i høj grad af supersonisk retrofremdrift (SRP) – at tænde motorerne mod flyveretningen ved hastigheder over lydens hastighed for at bremse og vende tilbage til Jorden. Denne afhandling undersøger kompressible strømninger (hvor luftens tæthed ændrer sig ved høj hastighed) under et rumfartøjs genindtrædningsbrænding i Jordens atmosfære med SRP. Fordi SRP skaber komplekse strømningsfelter, anvendes numerisk strømningsmekanik (Computational Fluid Dynamics, CFD) til at analysere dem. Vi vurderer, om open source-softwaren OpenFOAM, specifikt solveren rhoCentralFoam, kan genskabe kendt SRP-adfærd. Der udføres simulationer omkring en 60° sfære-kegle-geometri med fem forskellige thrust-niveauer (motorens kraft), og resultaterne sammenlignes med tidligere publicerede eksperimentelle og numeriske SRP-data. Resultaterne viser, at OpenFOAM med rhoCentralFoam kan fange centrale fysiske fænomener i SRP og gengive væsentlige flowstrukturer og trykfelter, selv med et relativt groft net. Nøjagtigheden er dog kun marginal, og trykfordelingen indeholder betydelige afvigelser. Der er derfor behov for yderligere arbejde, før opsætningen kan anvendes fuldt ud til SRP-design og -validering.
Reusing rocket stages—and thereby broadening access to space—depends on supersonic retropropulsion (SRP), which slows a vehicle by firing its engines against the direction of travel while moving faster than the speed of sound. This thesis studies compressible flows (where air density changes at high speed) during a spacecraft’s re-entry burn into Earth’s atmosphere using SRP. Because SRP produces complex flow fields, we use Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to analyze them and assess whether the open-source package OpenFOAM, specifically the rhoCentralFoam solver, can reproduce known SRP behavior. We simulate SRP around a 60° sphere-cone geometry across five thrust levels and compare the results with previously published experimental and numerical studies. The findings show that OpenFOAM with rhoCentralFoam can capture key SRP physics and reproduce major flow structures and pressure fields even with a relatively coarse mesh. However, overall accuracy is only marginal, with significant inaccuracies in the pressure distribution. Further work is needed before this setup can be fully relied upon for SRP applications and validation.
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