Comparison of a 3-D CFD-DSMC Solution Methodology With a Wind Tunnel Experiment

A solution method for problems that contain both continuum and rarefied flow regions is presented. The methodology is applied to flow about the Mars Sample Return Orbiter (MSRO), a 3‐D blunt body, which contains a region of highly compressed forebody flow, a shear layer where the flow separates from a forebody lip (i.e., where the base plane intersects the forebody), and a low density wake region about the afterbody. Because the blunt body flow contains such disparate regions, employing a single numerical technique to solve the entire flow field for a 3‐D configuration is often impractical, or the technique does not apply. Direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) could be employed to solve the entire flow field; however, the technique would require inordinate computational resources for continuum to near continuum regions, since, it is best suited for the rarefied wake region. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is appropriate for the high‐density region on the forebody, but in the rarefied wake region, contin...