This work deals with the analysis of the cork P50, an ablative thermal protection material (TPM) used for the heat shield of the qarman Re-entry CubeSat. Developed for the European Space Agency (ESA) at the von Karman Institute (VKI) for Fluid Dynamics, qarman is a scientifc demonstrator for Aerothermodynamic Research. The ability to model and predict the atypical behavior of the new cork-based materials is considered a critical research topic. Therefore, this work is motivated by the need to develop a numerical model able to respond to this demand, in preparation to the post-fight analysis of qarman. This study is focused on the main thermal response phenomena of the cork P50: pyrolysis and swelling. Pyrolysis was analyzed by means of the multi-physics Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code argo, developed at Cenaero. Based on a unifed fow-material solver, the Volume Averaged Navier–Stokes (VANS) equations were numerically solved to describe the interaction between a multi-species high enthalpy fow and a reactive porous medium, by means of a high-order Discontinuous Galerkin Method (DGM). Specifcally, an accurate method to compute the pyrolysis production rate was implemented. The modeling of swelling was the most ambitious task, requiring the development of a physical model accounting for this phenomenon, for the purpose of a future implementation within argo. A 1D model was proposed, mainly based on an a priori assumption on the swelling velocity and the resolution of a nonlinear advection equation, by means of a Finite Diference Method (FDM). Once developed, the model was successfully tested through a matlab code, showing that the approach is promising and thus opening the way to further developments.

Detailed Modeling of Cork-Phenolic Ablators in Preparation for the Post-flight Analysis of the QARMAN Re-entry CubeSat / Miccoli, Claudio; Turchi, Alessandro; Schrooyen, Pierre; D’Ambrosio, Domenic; Magin, Thierry. - In: AEROTECNICA MISSILI E SPAZIO. - ISSN 0365-7442. - (2021). [10.1007/s42496-021-00084-4]

Detailed Modeling of Cork-Phenolic Ablators in Preparation for the Post-flight Analysis of the QARMAN Re-entry CubeSat

Miccoli, Claudio;D’Ambrosio, Domenic;
2021

Abstract

This work deals with the analysis of the cork P50, an ablative thermal protection material (TPM) used for the heat shield of the qarman Re-entry CubeSat. Developed for the European Space Agency (ESA) at the von Karman Institute (VKI) for Fluid Dynamics, qarman is a scientifc demonstrator for Aerothermodynamic Research. The ability to model and predict the atypical behavior of the new cork-based materials is considered a critical research topic. Therefore, this work is motivated by the need to develop a numerical model able to respond to this demand, in preparation to the post-fight analysis of qarman. This study is focused on the main thermal response phenomena of the cork P50: pyrolysis and swelling. Pyrolysis was analyzed by means of the multi-physics Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) code argo, developed at Cenaero. Based on a unifed fow-material solver, the Volume Averaged Navier–Stokes (VANS) equations were numerically solved to describe the interaction between a multi-species high enthalpy fow and a reactive porous medium, by means of a high-order Discontinuous Galerkin Method (DGM). Specifcally, an accurate method to compute the pyrolysis production rate was implemented. The modeling of swelling was the most ambitious task, requiring the development of a physical model accounting for this phenomenon, for the purpose of a future implementation within argo. A 1D model was proposed, mainly based on an a priori assumption on the swelling velocity and the resolution of a nonlinear advection equation, by means of a Finite Diference Method (FDM). Once developed, the model was successfully tested through a matlab code, showing that the approach is promising and thus opening the way to further developments.
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11583/2922034