Surface temperature and pressure dependency of catalytic effects to flat plates in high enthalpy flow

Abstract

In the design of re-entry vehicles, to obtain maximum pay load, accurate knowledge of the aerodynamic heating of the vehicle is required for the optimal design of the vehicle’s configuration and thermal protection system (TPS). When a re-entry vehicle travels at very high speed, a very strong bow shock is formed in front the body and dissociation of air occurs inside the shock layer. Many dissociated atoms pass through the boundary layer and finally recombine on the surface, resulting in an increase of aerodynamic heat. One way to protect the vehicle from this severe thermal environment is to use materials for the TPS which are minimally catalytic, because such materials prevent the recombination of dissociated atoms on the surface and the release of massive dissociation energy. However, even slight catalysis of these materials considerably increases the amount of heat flux around the body compared with that in the case of a non-catalytic wall. Therefore, construction of a model which correctly describes the physics of catalytic processes is now of great importance. However, few flight or experimental data for CFD code validation are presently available.