Masters Theses

Date of Award

8-1997

Degree Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science

Major

Aerospace Engineering

Major Professor

J. Evans Lyne

Committee Members

H. Joe Wilerson, Charles R. Collins

Abstract

This work improves an existing model by Evans Lyne, Michael Tauber, and Rich Fought of meteor entry through Earth's atmosphere to allow calculations that are more accurate for a broader range of entry bodies than previously possible. An extensive high temperature thermodynamic model for air is used. This model was devised by a group of researchers at the Chance Vought Research Center and provides more than a threefold increase in the allowable temperature range over current comparable thermodynamic models. This corresponds to more than a doubling of the allowable entry velocity of meteors into Earth's atmosphere from approximately 20 km/s to 40 km/s and above. This program includes a detailed fragmentation model and an ablation model that accounts for both cooling and blowing effects within the shock layer. The model allows for analysis of nearly all Earth-crossing asteroids and virtually all non-retrograde comets. Other minor improvements have also been made over the previous model, including an improved pressure and enthalpy calculation behind the shock and an improved method of using the Green-Nicolet approximation to account for the blowing of ablated material blocking some of the radiative heat transfer to the body.

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