REVIEW OF NUMERICAL PROCEDURES FOR COMPUTATIONAL SURFACE THERMOCHEMISTRY

Models and equations for surface thermochemistry and near-surface ther mophysics aerodynamically heated thermal protection materials are revi ewed, with particular emphasis on computational boundary conditions fo r surface mass and energy transfer. The surface energy and mass balanc es, coupled with an appropriate ablation or surface catalysis model, p rovide complete thermochemical boundary conditions for a true multidis ciplinary solution of the fully coupled fluid-dynamics/solid mechanics problem. Practical approximate solutions can be obtained by using a d etailed model with full thermophysics for either the solid or fluid ph ase and a semianalytic method for the other half of the problem. A sig nificant increase in the state-of-the-art in aerothermal computational fluid dynamics is possible by uniting computational fluid dynamic (CF D) methodology with surface thermochemistry boundary conditions and th e heat-balance-integral method.