Modelling of thruster plume induced erosion

Statistics – Computation

Scientific paper

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Space Environment, Materials, Modelling

Scientific paper

One source of external induced contamination on the International Space Station (ISS) is thruster plume exhausts. The contamination from these plumes onto ISS sensitive surfaces is due to liquid drops of unreacted or partially reacted propellants. However, the drag acceleration of these particles (drops) from the exhaust gases produces high velocity (~km/s) drops that will mechanically damage surfaces in the exhaust. Previous space flight experiments on the Space Shuttle Orbiter which studied thruster plume induced contamination also demonstrated the pitting nature of these particles. The External Contamination/Plasma Team of the Boeing ISS Program Office in Houston has developed an approach to modeling the mechanical erosion on surfaces due to the impact of particles in thruster plumes. This approach melds damage simulation data from a smooth particle hydrodynamics (SPH) code from Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) into Boeing's own contamination computer tool (NASAN-II). The Boeing team has conducted several analyses simulating bipropellant thruster droplets impacting ISS sensitive surfaces. Computational results of various thrusters firing onto the ISS, at different build-stages, were completed and show a concern for particular solar array orientations during attitude control firings. Mitigation techniques for minimizing the erosion effects have also been determined and are presented.

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