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1. INTRODUCTION
3. ENTRY CORRIDOR
upper and the lower limits of the entry corridor. Terrestrial flights are tolerant
exit to space.
Figure shows the explanation of entry corridor and possible path for
vehicle with lift to Venus, Mars, and Titan.
When either truly circular entry is made inside entry corridor or final
entry is made through multipass scheme, the descent trajectory through the
atmosphere is similar to entry from a satellite orbit, namely ballistic path, glide
path or slip path.
The width of entry corridor (rp) for non-lifting (L/D<0) and lifting
(L/D>1) entry into various planetary atmosphere is given in the table below for
entry at planetary velocity (2gro)1/2.
Corridor width
The most important problem that a re-entry mission has to face is the
atmospheric deceleration. The deceleration forces can be as great as 600 to 900N
for unmanned space probes. Space shuttles use their wings to skim the
atmosphere and stretch the slow down period to more than 15 minutes and
thereby reducing the deceleration forces to about 15N.
Figure gives an idea about the drag and lift forces. The gas dynamic drag
force causes the reduction in the vehicles velocity and the centrifugal and lift
forces cause acceleration normal to the direction of motion. The gas dynamic lift
and drag motion and the resultant acceleration and the deceleration very directly
with the atmospheric density P and square of velocity V2 . Thus vehicle’s
deceleration varies with PV2.
When the spacecraft has lost most of its speed, it falls freely through
air. Parachutes slow it further down and a small rocket is fired in the final
seconds of descent to soften the impact of landing. For approach to non-
atmospheric planets, the absence of aerodynamic lift and drag necessitates the
use of reverse thrust rockets to slow down the vehicle for safe landing. Because
of the absence of atmosphere, there is no problem of aerodynamic heating.
Programming of rocket thrust is desired for best controlling the time and location
of landing.
5. AERODYNAMIC HEATING
At high speed associated with re-entering from space, air cannot flow
out of the way of the on rushing spacecraft fast enough. When the vehicle
encounters the atmosphere a shock will from ahead of the nose of the vehicle
heating the atmosphere in this region to a very high temperature. As the vehicle
plunges into deeper and denser atmosphere the vehicle will increasingly be
heated by the enveloping layer of incandescent atmosphere, while the speed of
the vehicle will continuously be reduced by the braking force of the atmosphere.
In this manner the vehicle’s K.E is converted into heat. If all the vehicle’s energy
were converted to heat within the vehicle itself, it would be more than enough to
vaporize the vehicle.
There are two ways in which the total energy is dissipated from the
vehicle. They are:
i. By waves unloading major part of the heat on the atmosphere by the
shock waves.
ii. To radiate heat away from hot surface of the vehicle.
Figure shows the shock wave formed fir blunt and streamlined
configurations.
Thus, one or more of the following methods can disperse the heat reaching
the vehicle:
a. Making skin material thick enough to act as a sink.
b. Radiation cooled shield with a thin metal skin and negligible heat sink
capacity may be used. Here the sink temperature in radiation equilibrium
situation must not exceed the heat capacity of the metal.
c. To use a heat shield constructed of inoculated layer of fiberglass and
similar materials. Under intense heat the outer layer of the shield chars
melts and vaporizes (Ablation).
Strength of shock wave determines the heat and drag applied directly
to the vehicle by air friction. Slender shape creates weak shock wave and
therefore a heavy frictional layer. Blunt has strong shock and little friction.
The materials usually used for the space vehicle structures are
Aluminium alloy, Magnesium alloy, Titanium alloy, Beryllium alloy, Ferrous
alloy, Stainless Steel and composite materials. These alloys are probably made
on the basis of maximum allowable temperature limit. Hollow and reduced
section structural members such as tube and beams can exhibit stiffness
characteristics compared with solid bars. Honey comb sections may be used to
create panels with extremely low weight with very high stiffness. The property
of honey comb panel is that the weight per unit moment of inertia is proportional
to the thickness of the face times the density of material. Nickel alloy, Titanium
and Aluminium are the three probable candidates for a re-entry vehicle structure.
Table-2 shows the commonly used materials for space probes with its
mechanical properties.
TABLE
Among the several heat protection methods the heat sink method
employing a high heat capacity metals such as Beryllium Oxide can absorb about
6.3 MJ/Kg without significant erosion. For high heating rates the ablation
principle provides an efficient heat protection method. In this case, the metal is
allowed to melt and vaporize and hence this thermal protective system is not
reusable. Ablative heat shields are often impregnated with carbon fibres, which
provides structural reinforcement and form a char layer that radiates heat.
Reasonable TPS candidates such as ceramic tiles used for shuttle orbiter or the
ceramic shingle/stand off concept developed for HERMES employ radiation
cooling. The vertical plane and lateral direction can be modulated to limit the
flight loads to compensate for non-nominal entry for guiding the vehicle to a
restricted recovery area. Fig.7 shows the variations of heating rates and exposure
times for various generic vehicles.
Landing phases are different for capsule and winged glide vehicles. In
the case of the capsules, most of its speed, it falls freely through air. Parachutes
slow it further and small rockets are fired in the final seconds of descent to soften
the impact of landing. The oceans are the prime landing areas. Water landing do
not require the high precision of landing area. The early US space capsules used
the cushioning of water and splashed down into oceans.
The major advantage in the case of winged glide vehicles is the ability
to attain the landing site substantially of the orbital plane and to make a
horizontal landing. By widening both the entry window and the corridor the
entry conditions become less stringent and operational flexibility is highly
increased. The cross range capability depends on the L/D properties of the
vehicle and the angle control, which simultaneously has to observe the flight
Space shuttle uses their wings to glide to runway and land like an
airplane. For landing in non-atmospheric planet reverse thrust rockets are used
by the vehicles. Figure given below explains the entry vehicle evolution.
9. CONCLUSION
REFERENCES
VOL.2 & 3.
CONTENTS
1. Introduction
3. Entry corridor
5. Aerodynamic heating
9. Conclusion
10. Reference
ABSTRACT
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First of all I thank the almighty for providing me with the strength and
courage to present the seminar.
I am also indebted to all the teaching and non- teaching staff of the
department of mechanical engineering for their cooperation and suggestions,
which is the spirit behind this report. Last but not the least, I wish to express my
sincere thanks to all my friends for their goodwill and constructive ideas.
AKHEEL ASLAM