Fully coupled multi-material surface ablation analysis of orbital re-entry experiment

초록

This study presents a multi-material surface ablation analysis of the Orbital Re-entry Experiment capsule under actual flight conditions. The objective is to investigate how material-dependent ablation behavior influences aerothermal heating in a realistic configuration where different thermal protection materials coexist. To analyze this problem, various finite-rate carbon ablation models and an equilibrium-based silicon carbide ablation model are incorporated into a coupled flow–material-response framework. The framework is validated against graphite arc-jet ablation experiments and applied to the Orbital Re-entry Experiment trajectory. Coupled simulations show improved agreement with flight-inferred heat fluxes compared to uncoupled methods. Noticeable variations in predicted heat flux and surface temperature arise depending on the carbon ablation model applied to the nose region, and these model-dependent differences vary across flight regimes. Ablation products generated at the nose are found to diffuse downstream and affect shoulder surface chemistry, producing temperature discontinuities near the material junction. These discontinuities are mainly associated with species diffusion and composition gradients. The results indicate that multi-material surface ablation can introduce thermal and chemical interactions not represented in single-material analyses. The main contribution of this study lies in the coupled multi-material ablation analysis of the OREX configuration and in clarifying how differences in surface chemistry influence species transport and heat transfer near the material junctions. © 2026 Elsevier Ltd.

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