Multi-dimensional ablation and thermal response program for Martian entry analysis

A new method to simulate ablative Thermal Protection System (TPS) behaviour during an atmospheric entry is presented. The approach consists of the coupling of two reduced order codes: one for the material behaviour prediction and one for the external heat flux estimation. The latter is a reduced order aero-thermodynamic code developed at Strathclyde University while the internal solver is a unidimensional thermo-ablative code. The three-dimensional spacecraft calculations are generated by running the one-dimensional ablative code on every geometrical vertex. This method produces an estimation of the 3D problem solution while avoiding the complexity of a multidimensional thermo-ablative solver. The test case analysed to prove the method efficacy is the entry of the Pathfinder capsule in the Martian atmosphere.