Date of Award

May 2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department

Mechanical Engineering

First Advisor

Chonglin Zhang

Abstract

Hypersonic atmospheric re-entry involves complex rarefied flow phenomena, including thermochemical non-equilibrium and plasma formation, which must be accurately predicted to assess vehicle performance and communication blackout. The Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method is applied to model these effects through code-to-code comparison and rarefied re-entry simulation. DSMC codes SPARTA and Comet are compared with a 2D cylinder test case to evaluate consistency in predicted flowfield quantities. This is followed by 2D and 3D axi-symmetric simulation of the Varda re-entry capsule at 78 km altitude to characterize plasma formation. 2D cylinder results show agreement in translational and rotational temperature and neutral species distributions, with discrepancies in vibrational temperature due to thermochemical modeling differences. The Varda simulation captures key re-entry features, with Comet results in good agreement to calibrated SPARTA DSMC code and CFD code, demonstrating the capability of both DSMC codes while highlighting sensitivity to model selection.

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