Mechanical Erosion Modeling of TPS Materials

This work describes the development of a model that accounts for the additional total surface recession in Thermal Protection Systems materials as a result of mechanical erosion due to high shear conditions during atmospheric entry. A computational solid mechanics capability module was integrated within the Porous material Analysis Toolbox based on OpenFOAM, PATO. The mechanical erosion was modeled in three steps: first, the implemented stress analysis solver module computes the stress and the displacement fields for orthotropic materials using the wall shear stress tensor as a boundary condition; then, regions on the surface where the stress meets the failure criteria are identified; and last, the mesh is moved accordingly to remove the failed material. The outcome is a model of the total recession of the material due to surface chemistry and mechanical erosion. Results will be included in the final paper after verifying and completing the study.