ABSTRACT
Aero-thermal environment assessment and Thermal Protection system (TPS) design for a re-entry module using silica tile system was carried out for the descent trajectory. Several temperature measurements at different locations were carried out in silica tile system to validate the TPS design methodology and verify whether the margins used in the design are adequate with respect to heat flux estimation. This is also essential to study the thermal performance of the silica tile system and to verify the adequacy of TPS with respect to temperature constraint.
Heat flux estimation on different locations of the reentry module was carried out using engineering methods. Design code with equilibrium air properties has been used for the analysis. Transition from laminar to turbulent flow is considered to take place at local Reynolds Number of 0.5E+06 (0.5 million).
Subsequently after the flight, thermal analysis was carried out considering the flight trajectory. It is seen that computed temperatures show fairly close agreement with measured temperatures. It is also seen that temperature of silica tile system at different interfaces are below the specified temperature limits indicating the adequacy of TPS. Thus the capability of engineering methods to provide reasonable estimate of re-entry heating is demonstrated through flight measurements.
