Particle Flow Physics Modeling for Extreme Environments

The liberation of particles induced by rocket plume flow from spacecraft landing on unprepared regolith of the Moon, Mars, and other destinations poses high mission risks for robotic and human exploration activities. This process occurs in a combination of "extreme environments" that combine low gravity, little or no atmosphere, with rocket exhaust gas flow that is supersonic and partially rarefied, and unusual geological and mechanical properties of highly irregular soil regolith. CFDRC and the University of Florida have previously developed unique plume driven erosion simulation software for such environments by combining novel granular physics simulation modules developed by UF with the Unified Flow Solver (UFS) plume flow simulation software developed by CFDRC. Granular flow constitutive models, formulated through first-principle 3-D Discrete Element Method particle kinetics simulations, were implemented for efficient Eulerian gas-granular flow CFD modeling in the UFS simulation framework. Resultant simulations realistically capture the granular flow characteristics of particle erosion and cratering scenarios. The goal of this project is to dramatically advance the fidelity of these simulations towards simulating actual extra-terrestrial soil compositions with broad shape and size variations. This will be achieved through applying recent, novel particle kinetics modeling concepts to formulate granular flow physics models for both, realistic irregular particle shapes and realistically dispersed particle size distributions. The proposed technology development will result in unprecedented computer modeling capability for predicting liberation and flow of realistic granular material compositions in extreme extra-terrestrial environments.

The debris simulation tool will offer a powerful simulation capability of first order importance to the Space Exploration Program for robotic and human mission architecture definition to the Moon, Mars, and other destinations. The highest risks occurring during propulsive landing and takeoff of spacecraft require gas-granular flow simulation capabilities for designing mitigation measures. The granular flow modeling capability will be equally important for modeling regolith material manipulation for In-situ Resource Utilization such as pneumatic transport, granular flow movement in excavators, resource extraction systems moving and conveying planetary regolith, as well as processing of regolith in reactors for resource extraction.

Many potential non-NASA commercial applications exist in civil and military industries. Dust, sand and snow stir-up during helicopter landing and take-off in a desert or arctic environment result in severe visibility impairment (brown-out) and danger of debris ingestion. Civil engineering and environmental engineering applications include wind-borne landscape erosion and dust transport to populated areas

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