Approach for Modeling Rocket Plume Impingement and Dust Dispersal on the Moon

作者：Morris Aaron B^*; Goldstein David B; Varghese Philip L; Trafton Laurence M

来源：Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, 2015, 52(2): 362-374.

DOI：10.2514/1.A33058

When a lander approaches the lunar surface, the plume from the descent engine impinges on the ground and entrains loose regolith into a high-velocity spray. This problem is simulated with a hybrid continuum-kinetic solver, where the internal nozzle flow and near-field plume are simulated with a continuum solver (data parallel line relaxation) and the regions of two-phase flow are simulated via the direct simulation Monte Carlo method. Fully coupled two-phase dust and gas motions and an inelastic grain-grain collision model have been implemented for a polydisperse distribution of particles sizes. This work examines the sensitivity of the solutions to these models for the case of steady axisymmetric plume impingement at different hovering altitudes. Of the physical phenomena modeled in this work, the dust sprays were found to be most sensitive to grain-grain collisions. The coefficient of restitution for colliding grains was parametrically studied and has a significant impact on how grain-grain collisions scatter the dust sprays.

• 出版日期2015-3