Hypersonic flow of rarefied gas near the Brazilian satellite during its reentry into atmosphere

Abstract

To calculate aerothermodynamic characteristics of the Brazilian satellite SARA (Portuguese abbreviation: SAtélite de Reentrada Atmosférica) during its re-entry the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo method is applied. The numerical calculations were carried out in a wide range of the gas rarefaction beginning from the free molecular regime up to the hydrodynamic one for three values of the Mach number equal to 5, 10 and 20. The following numerical data are presented in the paper: drag force of the satellite, distributions of the heat flux, pressure coefficient and skin friction coefficient over the satellite surface, the density and temperature distributions in the front of the satellite and streamlines in the gas around the satellite. To study the influence of the satellite temperature upon these characteristics some calculations were carried out for different values of the satellite temperature.