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Ph.D. Thesis Defense: Keir C. Gonyea

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Ph.D. Thesis Defense by

Keir C. Gonyea

(Advisor: Prof. Robert D. Braun)

“Use of the Mars Atmosphere to Improve the Performance of Supersonic Retropropulsion”

Monday May 8, 2017, 12:30pm
Montgomery Knight Room 317

Abstract:

NASA has landed seven vehicles on the surface of Mars using parachutes for supersonic descent. These parachutes are unsuited to future high mass missions due to inflation, drag, and aerothermodynamic complications. Supersonic retropropulsion is a candidate technology to replace supersonic parachutes, but is hindered by its large associated propellant mass. Atmospheric-breathing propulsion systems may reduce this mass constraint by ingesting oxidizer from the surrounding atmosphere. However, the Martian atmosphere, which is composed of primarily carbon dioxide, necessitates that metal fuels be used in order to combust the available oxidizer.  

This thesis advances the state of the art of atmospheric-breathing supersonic retropropulsion (ABSRP) by providing the first exploration into the feasibility and potential performance of ABSRP as a technology solution for high-mass Mars missions. Specific advancements are made using systems analysis methods and computational models. 

ABSRP propulsion performance is assessed via a suite of analysis tools, which are developed to simulate metal – CO2 combustion performance and sensitivity to both the engine design and operating regime. These tools include an equilibrium combustion simulation to evaluate engine efficiency, a finite-rate kinetics simulation to investigate the time-dependent phenomena, and a particle burning simulation to assess diffusion effects. Case studies are presented for ABSRP relevant mixtures and conditions to predict propulsion performance of the ABSRP engine across a range of conditions and verify that reasonably sized combustion chambers can provide complete combustion of the propellant. 

The propulsion system results are used in an ABSRP vehicle model, which accounts for the variable engine performance across different flight regimes. This model is used to search the design space and determine the characteristics and performance of ABSRP architectures relative to competing propulsive solutions. The investigation includes an assessment of feasible and unfeasible regions of the design space in addition to design trends for optimal configurations. Mass favorable vehicles of multiple architectures are compared to understand their relative performance in order to ultimately determine the potential applicability of atmospheric-breathing propulsion for Mars descent.

Committee:
Dr. Robert D. Braun (advisor)
Dr. Jechiel I. Jagoda
Dr. Jerry M. Seitzman
Dr. Brian J. German
Dr. Aaron H. Auslender

Status

  • Workflow Status:Published
  • Created By:Margaret Ojala
  • Created:04/28/2017
  • Modified By:Margaret Ojala
  • Modified:05/02/2017