NUMERICAL THERMAL ANALYSIS OF RE-ENTRY APOLLO MODEL AS-202 AT HIGH ANGLE OF ATTACK

Re-entry Apollo model AS-202 became a popular research area in the aerospace industries recognized the importance of the field for various interests' applications owing to its capability to resist the high heating loads through the re-entry stage. This work employs Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to analyse the heat transfer and thermal stresses of a capsule entering the atmosphere of Earth at free-stream Mach No. 6 and 10. The coupled, nonlinear partial differential equations that describe the physical phenomenon are solved using the 3D finite element method to predict the pressure and temperature distribution over the Apollo at different attack angles. Subsequently, the resulting stress and deformation occurring on Apollo have been obtained. The dynamic mesh and user-defined function are applied to control the position of Apollo at the setting Angle of Attack (AoA). The result depicted extreme temperature at the heat shield and decreased potential and kinetic energy. The pressure over the after body stays nearly constant, reflecting a separated flow at the base. The equivalent stress-induced and the total deformation corresponding to the flow have been successfully computed. Based on the results presented, the equivalent stress increases with increasing the angle of attack, while the deformation decreases with the attack angle. The predicted aerodynamic characteristic of the 3D Apollo has been successfully compared with the previous measurement.

Automated summary

This research uses Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) to analyze the heat transfer and thermal stresses of the Apollo capsule during re-entry. The 3D finite element method is used to solve the coupled nonlinear partial differential equations, predicting the pressure and temperature distribution over the Apollo at different attack angles. The resulting stress and deformation on Apollo are obtained, showing extreme temperatures at the heat shield and decreased potential and kinetic energy.