Presentation of the 2011 FIAT Baseline Results
Start Date
3-3-2011 8:45 AM
Description
The workshop organizers defined a relatively simple case for this initial code intercalibration exercise. The analysis objective is to calculate the thermal and in-depth thermochemical response of a 50 mm thick fictitious low-density phenolic-reinforced carbon composite called TACOT (Theoretical Ablative Composite for Open Testing). The surface boundary condition is for a 60 s exposure to a constant 1644 K surface temperature. The back wall boundary condition is adiabatic. Virgin and char thermal properties for TACOT are defined as are decomposition kinetics. Pyrolysis gas molar composition is defined and the enthalpy of the pyrolysis gas assuming thermochemical equilibrium at a pressure of 1 atm is provided, although participants are free to use different assumptions or more sophisticated modeling. Surface themochemistry and surface recession are not considered for this case.
The CMA code has been the industry standard for the past 40 years. The FIAT code, developed at NASA Ames, is an upgraded version of CMA. A FIAT analysis was conducted using the properties provided to define baseline results for code comparisons. Additional FIAT cases were run to demonstrate the influence of specific characteristics of this problem. For example, the assumption of an equilibrium pyrolysis gas enthalpy results in an unrealistic exothermic pyrolysis process whereas use of literature values for the heat of pyrolysis can be implemented. These baseline results will be available for comparison with analysis results from other codes.
Presentation of the 2011 FIAT Baseline Results
The workshop organizers defined a relatively simple case for this initial code intercalibration exercise. The analysis objective is to calculate the thermal and in-depth thermochemical response of a 50 mm thick fictitious low-density phenolic-reinforced carbon composite called TACOT (Theoretical Ablative Composite for Open Testing). The surface boundary condition is for a 60 s exposure to a constant 1644 K surface temperature. The back wall boundary condition is adiabatic. Virgin and char thermal properties for TACOT are defined as are decomposition kinetics. Pyrolysis gas molar composition is defined and the enthalpy of the pyrolysis gas assuming thermochemical equilibrium at a pressure of 1 atm is provided, although participants are free to use different assumptions or more sophisticated modeling. Surface themochemistry and surface recession are not considered for this case.
The CMA code has been the industry standard for the past 40 years. The FIAT code, developed at NASA Ames, is an upgraded version of CMA. A FIAT analysis was conducted using the properties provided to define baseline results for code comparisons. Additional FIAT cases were run to demonstrate the influence of specific characteristics of this problem. For example, the assumption of an equilibrium pyrolysis gas enthalpy results in an unrealistic exothermic pyrolysis process whereas use of literature values for the heat of pyrolysis can be implemented. These baseline results will be available for comparison with analysis results from other codes.