Pietro Innocenzi, Michela Gramola, Tom B. Fisher, Mark K. Quinn, Paul J. K. Bruce, Salvador Navarro-Martinez
DOI Number XXX-YYY-ZZZ
Conference Number HiSST-2022-395
This study explores the aerothermal behaviour of a rigid mechanically deployable aeroshell developed
at Imperial College London for high-payload atmospheric entry missions. The multiphysics CFD software
STAR-CCM+ is used to perform a Conjugate Heat Transfer analysis on the aeroshell’s faceted geometry.
Results are presented for four different geometry models tested in air at Mach 5 with angles of attack
α = 0°, 5° and 10°. The predicted surface heat transfer reveals areas of elevated heat loads at the ribs
between facets and at the aeroshell shoulder, due to local boundary layer thinning. The increase in
heat transfer at the ribs depends on the sharpness of the rib: more rounded shapes result in lower heat
fluxes. Comparison with high-speed wind tunnel tests shows good agreement with experimental data.
Stanton number and temperature profiles agree within 8% and 2% respectively. The discrepancies
between experiments and simulations are largest at the sharp ribs of the aeroshell. The sources of error
can be associated to three dimensional effects neglected in the heat flux derivations from temperature
measurements as well as experimental uncertaintes.