Simulation of rocket plume impingement and dust dispersal on the lunar surface
type: CreativeWork
description: When a lander approaches a dusty surface, the plume from the descent engine impinges on the ground and entrains loose regolith into a high velocity spray. This problem exhibits a wide variety of complex phenomena such as highly under-expanded plume impingement, transition from continuum to free molecular flow, erosion, coupled gas-dust motions, and granular collisions for a polydisperse distribution of aerosolized particles. The focus of this work is to identify and model the important physical phenomena and to characterize the dust motion that would result during typical lunar landings. A hybrid continuum-kinetic solver is used, but most of the complex physics are simulated using the direct simulation Monte Carlo method. A descent engine of comparable size and thrust to the Lunar Module Descent Engine is simulated because it allows for direct comparison to Apollo observations. Steady axisymmetric impingement was first studied for different thrust engines and different hovering altitudes. The erosion profiles are obtained from empirically derived scaling relationships and calibrated to closely match the net erosion observed during the Apollo missions. Once entrained, the dust motion is strongly influenced by particle-particle collisions and the collision elasticity. The effects of two-way coupling between the dust and gas motions are also studied. Small particles less than 1 µm in diameter are accelerated to speeds that exceed 1000 m/s. The larger particles have more inertia and are accelerated to slower speeds, approximately 350 m/s for 11 µm grains, but all particle sizes tend obtain their maximum speed within approximately 40 m from the lander. The maximum particle speeds and erosion rates tend to increase as the lander approaches the lunar surface. The erosion rates scale linearly with engine thrust and the maximum particle speed increases for higher thrust engines. Dust particles are able to travel very far from the lander because there is no background atmosph…
abstract: When a lander approaches a dusty surface, the plume from the descent engine impinges on the ground and entrains loose regolith into a high velocity spray. This problem exhibits a wide variety of complex phenomena such as highly under-expanded plume impingement, transition from continuum to free molecular flow, erosion, coupled gas-dust motions, and granular collisions for a polydisperse distribution of aerosolized particles. The focus of this work is to identify and model the important physical phenomena and to characterize the dust motion that would result during typical lunar landings. A hybrid continuum-kinetic solver is used, but most of the complex physics are simulated using the direct simulation Monte Carlo method. A descent engine of comparable size and thrust to the Lunar Module Descent Engine is simulated because it allows for direct comparison to Apollo observations. Steady axisymmetric impingement was first studied for different thrust engines and different hovering altitudes. The erosion profiles are obtained from empirically derived scaling relationships and calibrated to closely match the net erosion observed during the Apollo missions. Once entrained, the dust motion is strongly influenced by particle-particle collisions and the collision elasticity. The effects of two-way coupling between the dust and gas motions are also studied. Small particles less than 1 µm in diameter are accelerated to speeds that exceed 1000 m/s. The larger particles have more inertia and are accelerated to slower speeds, approximately 350 m/s for 11 µm grains, but all particle sizes tend obtain their maximum speed within approximately 40 m from the lander. The maximum particle speeds and erosion rates tend to increase as the lander approaches the lunar surface. The erosion rates scale linearly with engine thrust and the maximum particle speed increases for higher thrust engines. Dust particles are able to travel very far from the lander because there is no background atmosph…
author: Morris, Aaron Benjamin
language: eng
keywords: Plume-impingement, Direct simulation Monte Carlo, Rarefied gases, Two-phase flow, Granular flow
date published: 2012-12
date modified: 2026-07-24T05:01:12Z
provider: University of Texas
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Texas at Austin

PropertyValue
property ID: Handle
value: http://hdl.handle.net/2152/ETD-UT-2012-12-6718