Nonspherical nanoparticles in hypersonic flows

Ice particles in the atmosphere influences the fluid-structure interactions on hypersonic vehicles by, e.g. creating surface roughness through hypervelocity impacts or absorbing heat in the shock layer. Computational models tend to omit certain interactions and assume spherical particles. This talk will present a comprehensive, fully coupled model for nonspherical nanoparticles in hypersonic flows, valid in the limit of large particle Knudsen numbers. The model uses generalized Green’s functions and is implemented in SPARTA, Sandia’s open-source direct simulation Monte Carlo solver. A particle-laden hypersonic flow past a spherical body is simulated to demonstrate the effect of ice in the shock layer and on surface properties.