Analytic Corrections to Computational Heating Predictions Accounting for Changes in Surface Catalysis

摘要

A new approach for combining the insight afforded by integral boundary-layer analysis with comprehensive (but time-intensive) computational fluid dynamic flowfield solutions of the thin-layer Navier-Stokes equations is described. The approach extracts computationally simulated quantities at the wall and at the boundary-layer edge for inclusion in a postprocessing boundary-layer analysis. It allows a designer at a workstation to address the question, given a single computational solution, "How much does the heating change for a thermal protection system with catalytic properties different from those used in the original numerical simulation?" Capabilities of this approach for application to reusable launch vehicle design are demonstrated. If the definition of surface catalysis is uncertain early in the design process, results show that fully catalytic wall boundary conditions provide the best baseline for computationally simulated design points.