DIRECT SIMULATION MONTE-CARLO CALCULATION OF A JET INTERACTION EXPERIMENT

This study deals with the development of a methodology for numerically simulating the interaction of a reaction control system (RCS) jet wit h a low-density external now, A European Space Agency experiment was c hosen as a test case, since it provided experimental data that could v alidate some of the numerical results, The initial approach was to foc us on several subproblems having direct relevance to the full interact ion problem, This enabled different numerical methods to be investigat ed separately and validated for each part of the interaction problem, In this manner, the best methodology for solving the full interaction problem was developed, The subproblems considered in this study includ ed typical RCS nozzle and plume flows, a flat plate at zero incidence, and the how past the experimental test model without the control jet firing, Once these calculations were completed, a simulation was perfo rmed of the test model with the control jet operating at the experimen tal density, The results from this final simulation were compared with experimental measurements,