Determining Aerothermodynamic Effects on Very-Low-Earth-Orbit Satellites Using Direct Simulation Monte Carlo Method

Abstract

Very low Earth orbits (VLEOs) have an altitude of 100–450 km and have become a popular topic in space technology owing to their high application potential. However, spacecraft experience stronger aerothermodynamic effects at VLEOs. In this study, we used a parallel direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) code called PDSC⁺⁺ and compared it with a traditional DSMC code. The results are in good agreement with the benchmarks. We also simulated the aerothermodynamic factors of a CubeSat, including the operating attitude, orbit altitude, size configuration, and solar panel deployment. The simulations indicate that CubeSats experience minimum drag at an angle of attack of 45°. The orbit altitude strongly affects the particle flow around and stress on a CubeSat. Moreover, a large CubeSat with solar panels experiences high drag and stress. These results can be used as a guide for further research on the service length and other configurational factors of CubeSats.

KEYWORDS:

• VLEO satellite
• cubesat
• DSMC method
• hypersonic rarefied flow
• aerothermodynamic simulation

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge the funding received from the Ministry of Science and Technology of Taiwan through research grant 108-2221-E-606-007-MY2. We thank the National Center for High-performance Computing of Taiwan for providing access to the TAIWANIA super computer service. Moreover, we are grateful to Professor J. S. Wu and the Aerothermal & Plasma Physics Laboratory (APPL) of National Chiao Tung University for providing guidance regarding DSMC simulations.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Ministry of Science and Technology, Taiwan: [Grant Number 108-2221-E-606-007-MY2].