A Study on Radio Frequency Blackout of Planetary Atmospheric Reentry Vehicle

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 26820366
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Aerospace engineering
• Research Institution: Hokkaido University
• Principal Investigator: Takahashi Yusuke 北海道大学, 工学(系)研究科(研究院), 助教 (40611132)
• Project Period (FY): 2014-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 惑星大気再突入 / 通信ブラックアウト / 空力加熱 / 熱化学非平衡流 / プラズマ中の電磁波電波 / 数値解析的アプローチ / 計算科学

Outline of Final Research Achievements

An analysis model of plasma flow and electromagnetic waves around a reentry vehicle for radio frequency blackout prediction was developed. The plasma flow properties in the shock layer and wake region were obtained using a newly developed unstructured grid solver that incorporated real gas effect models and could treat thermochemically nonequilibrium flow. To predict the electromagnetic waves in plasma layer, a frequency-dependent finite-difference time-domain method was used. The combined model was validated based on experimental results in atmospheric reentry missions. The prediction performance of the combined model was evaluated with profiles and peak values of the electron number density. The signal losses measured during communication were directly compared with the predicted results. Based on the study, it is suggested that the analysis model could be an effective tool for investigating radio frequency blackout and plasma attenuation in radio wave communication.

Free Research Field

高速流体・高温気体力学