Multidimensional material response simulation of a full-scale tiled ablative heatshield
The Mars Science Laboratory (MSL) was protected during Mars atmospheric entry by a 4.5 meter diameter ablative heatshield, assembled in 113 tiles. The heatshield tiles were made of NASA’s flagship porous ablative material, the Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA). This study provides a detailed three-dimensional heat and mass transfer analysis of the full-scale MSL tiled heatshield.
References :
- Full-scale Mars Science Laboratory tiled heatshield material response. J. B. E. Meurisse, J. Lachaud, C. Y. Tang, N. N. Mansour. 9th Ablation Workshop. August 30-31, 2017, Montana State University, USA. Presentation
- Multidimensional material response simulations of a full-scale tiled ablative heatshield. J. B. E. Meurisse, J. Lachaud, F. Panerai, C. Tang, N. N. Mansour. Aerospace Science and Technology. 76 : 497–511, 2018. doi: 10.1016/j.ast.2018.01.013 Preprint
Contact : Jeremie.B.Meurisse@nasa.gov