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High-Fidelity Gas and Granular Flow Physics Models for Rocket Exhaust Interaction with Lunar Soil

Award Information
Agency: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Branch: N/A
Contract: NNX09CF70P
Agency Tracking Number: 080089
Amount: $99,935.00
Phase: Phase I
Program: STTR
Solicitation Topic Code: T7.01
Solicitation Number: N/A
Timeline
Solicitation Year: 2008
Award Year: 2009
Award Start Date (Proposal Award Date): 2009-01-22
Award End Date (Contract End Date): 2010-01-21
Small Business Information
215 Wynn Drive, 5th Floor
Huntsville, AL 35805-1944
United States
DUNS: 185169620
HUBZone Owned: No
Woman Owned: Yes
Socially and Economically Disadvantaged: No
Principal Investigator
 Peter Liever
 Principal Investigator
 (256) 726-4858
 pal@cfdrc.com
Business Contact
 Silvia Harvey
Title: Documentation Specialist
Phone: (256) 726-4858
Email: sxh@cfdrc.com
Research Institution
 University of Florida
 Not Available
 
339 Weil Hall, P.O. Box 116550
Gainesville, FL 32611
United States

 (352) 392-9448
 Domestic Nonprofit Research Organization
Abstract

Soil debris liberated by spacecraft landing on the lunar surface may damage and contaminate surrounding spacecraft and habitat structures. Current numerical simulations of these events lack credibility because lunar environment complexities have never been captured in suitable models: the mixed rarefied-continuum nature of the plume's surface layer flow, and the highly irregular soil particle shapes with peculiar granular stresses, particle aerodynamics, and particle collision characteristics. CFDRC and the University of Florida (UF) propose to apply their uniquely capable simulations simulation tools to derive credible lunar gas and granular flow physics sub-models from first principles. CFDRC's unified continuum-rarefied flow solver will be applied to characterize the surface layer flow structure and assess interference effects from surface craters and rocks. The code's unique ability to resolve highly irregular shapes with an automated adaptive Cartesian approach will be applied to compute realistic particle aerodynamics. A Lagrangian particle collision model developed for efficiently simulating dense particle streams will characterize particle collision and dispersion effects. A novel fundamental soil model developed by UF to describe all constituent stresses in a single fundamental model for arbitrary particle shapes mixtures will be applied. Phase I will demonstrate the unique capabilities of the proposed simulation tools. During Phase II, these tools will be applied to create high fidelity physics sub-models for integration in current erosion simulation models.

* Information listed above is at the time of submission. *

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