A thermochemical nonequilibrium flow around a super orbital reentry capsule

The aerodynamic heating to the super orbital reentry capsule of MUSES-C is numerically studied by using thermochemical nonequilibrium full Viscous-Shock-Layer (VSL) equations. An 11 air-species model is used for non-ablating boundary conditions. Six carbonous species are added for ablating boundary conditions. With a three-temperature model, thermal nonequilibrium effect is taken into account. The connective and radiative heat fluxes to the wall are examined for both fully catalytic wall (FCW) condition and non-catalytic wall (NCW) condition at various altitudes for the capsule reentry trajectory path. The maximum heat fluxes estimated for FCW and NCW are 8.7 MW/m(2) at the altitude of 56 km and 6.1 MW/m(2) at the altitude of 56 km, respectively. The radiative heat flux at the stagnation point of the capsule has also been calculated and the maximum radiative heat flux of 0.9 MW/m(2) has been found at the altitude of 62 km. The intensity of UV and VUV spectra are extremely intense, so that such UV and VUV spectra mainly contribute to the radiative heat flux.