Low-to-high altitude predictions of three-dimensional ablative reentry flowfields

A new coupled-chemistry PNS scheme has been developed to study 3D hypersonic reentry flows over sphere cones at small angles of attack. A new quasi-steady ablation model for Teflon was used to predict ablative reentry flow fields under laminar, transitional, and turbulent conditions. This solution scheme uses a new two-step solution scheme for solving the species conservation equations under low-altitude conditions. As an example, the scheme is used to study hypersonic flow over a 6-deg sphere-cone configuration at 50 and 125 kft conditions under zero and nonzero angle of attack conditions.