Analysis of Aerodynamic Heating Modes in Thermochemical Nonequilibrium Flow for Hypersonic Reentry

Shuai He, Wei Zhao, Xinyue Dong, Zhuzhu Zhang, Jingying Wang (), Xinglian Yang, Shiyue Zhang, Jiaao Hao and Ke Sun
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Shuai He: School of Nuclear, Energy and Power Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China
Wei Zhao: School of Nuclear, Energy and Power Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China
Xinyue Dong: School of Nuclear, Energy and Power Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China
Zhuzhu Zhang: School of Nuclear, Energy and Power Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China
Jingying Wang: School of Nuclear, Energy and Power Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China
Xinglian Yang: School of Nuclear, Energy and Power Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China
Shiyue Zhang: School of Nuclear, Energy and Power Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China
Jiaao Hao: Department of Aeronautical and Aviation Engineering, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 999077, China
Ke Sun: School of Nuclear, Energy and Power Engineering, Shandong University, Jinan 250061, China

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 13, 1-20

Abstract: Thermochemical nonequilibrium significantly affects the accurate simulation of the aerothermal environment surrounding a hypersonic reentry vehicle entering Earth’s atmosphere during deep space exploration missions. The different heat transfer modes corresponding to each internal energy mode and chemical diffusion have not been sufficiently analyzed. The existing dimensionless correlations for stagnation point aerodynamic heating do not account for thermochemical nonequilibrium effects. This study employs an in-house high-fidelity solver PHAROS (Parallel Hypersonic Aerothermodynamics and Radiation Optimized Solver) to simulate the hypersonic thermochemical nonequilibrium flows over a standard sphere under both super-catalytic and non-catalytic wall conditions. The total stagnation point heat flux and different heating modes, including the translational–rotational, vibrational–electronic, and chemical diffusion heat transfers, are all identified and analyzed. Stagnation point aerodynamic heating correlations have been modified to account for the thermochemical nonequilibrium effects. The results further reveal that translational–rotational and chemical diffusion heat transfers dominate the total aerodynamic heating, while vibrational–electronic heat transfer contributes only about 5%. This study contributes to the understanding of aerodynamic heating principles and thermal protection designs for future hypersonic reentry vehicles.

Keywords: hypersonic reentry; numerical simulation; thermochemical nonequilibrium; aerodynamic heating; deep space exploration (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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