Numerical investigation of transpiration and ablation cooling

To predict the integral performance of transpiration and ablation cooling during the reentry of hypersonic vehicles, an unsteady numerical model based on the assumption of thermal equilibrium is presented. The non-thermal equilibrium model and the thermal equilibrium model are coupled by the effective thermal properties of the porous matrix and the coolant. The calculation using the thermal equilibrium model shows the influence of the variation of the effective thermal properties on the numerical results by a comparison between constant and variable thermal properties. The comparison indicates that near the melting temperature of the porous matrix, the position of the moving boundary due to ablation is sensitive to the temperature, therefore, the variation of the thermal properties are considered in this paper. The process of ablation and transpiration cooling is simulated under different numerical conditions. The simulations demonstrate that the injection rate of coolant mass flow and initial temperature of cooling are important parameters for the control of the ablation process.