CFD modeling of Venus aerocapture flow

This work aims to study the high-temperature hypersonic flow around a small vehicle for a Venus’ atmosphere sampling in order to compute the convective wall heating. The semi-empirical Sutton-Graves correlation were used beyond their limitations for a preliminary estimation for relevant trajectory points where heat fluxes could be maximum. Aerothermal CFD simulations were performed for six trajectory points comprising freestream velocities up to 10.8 km/s. The simulations were performed using the SPARK CFD code, developed and maintained at Instituto de Plasmas e Fusao Nuclear. A comparison between the CFD results and the correlation showed that the Sutton-Graves correlation largely overpredicted the convective heat fluxes, reasserting their inadequacy for this case. An aerothermal analysis at the peak heating point was performed, and the high-temperature flowfield around the vehicle was characterized. Furthermore, different flowfield models were compared and discussed regarding their accuracy and computational cost. This work was made possible by a teamwork with a group of colleagues. Working together on a new Concurrent Design Facility developed at Instituto Superior Tecnico de Lisboa, we were able to share data and help each other to pursue our goal.