3D Modeling and Simulation of the Thermal Degradation of Composite Material during Space Debris Atmospheric Reentry

The spacecraft oriented code ARES developed at ON-ERA since 2005 to compute Earth and Mars atmospheric reentries is introduced. Then, a new 3D mesh displacement strategy to computed 3D space debris ablation is presented. This strategy is implemented in the material response solver MoDeTheC, which is one of the 4 independant solvers coupled within ARES code. Verification test cases show the capacity of the strategy to deal with important recession and shape changes. This strategy is then used in ARES software to rebuild a wind tunnel ablation test. Finally, the atmospheric reentry of a tank made of an orthotropic composite material is computed, taking into account degradation reaction and shape changes. Two coupling strategy in ARES software are used and compared.