Application of Electrodynamic Heat Shield System to Super-Orbital Reentry Vehicles

Abstract

An applicability of the electrodynamic heat shield system to super-orbital reentry vehicles was investigated. In the case of the super-orbital reentry flight, due to the strong ionization reactions inside the shock layer, the heat shield system which utilizes the electromagnetic force is expected to work well. In the present study, in order to evaluate the reentry heating reduction by this heat shield system, we performed a CFD analysis including thermochemical non-equilibrium effects and an electromagnetic force. The flight condition used for the present study is that the velocity is 11.6km/s at the altitude of 64km at which the stagnation point heat flux of the MUSES-C reentry capsule is considered to be the maximum value. From our CFD results, we found that the heat flux to the vehicle could be reduced by up to 50%. Additionally, it was also found that the drag coefficient increased with the magnetic field strength, and the maximum value of the drag coefficient was 2.0 with the magnetic field strength of 0.6[T].