Space

Plume impingement plays a major role in the development of spacecraft systems due to the possible contamination of mission critical elements such as solar panels or scientific instruments by a thruster exhaust. The application case presented in the following validates the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) and the particle-based ellipsoidal statistical Bhatnagar-Gross-Krook (ESBGK) methods in PICLas with experimental measurements.

Cold gas thrusters are typically utilized in satellites due to their reduced complexity, reliability and low cost. Due to plume impingement, the exhaust of the thruster can pose a contamination risk for mission critical components or even result in a reduced performance of the thruster itself. Therefore, numerical simulations are utilized to predict the effect of the thruster plume on its surroundings.

Spacecraft travelling to Saturn’s Titan utilize its atmosphere to decelerate upon arrival. During this maneuver, spacecraft must withstand an extreme thermal environment. Through numerical simulations of the atmospheric entry, the conditions and the incident heat flux are approximated to support the design of the thermal protection system.