Aero-thermal re-entry sensitivity analysis using DSMC and a high dimensional model representation-based approach

This paper presents a sensitivity analysis for the hypersonic aero-thermal convective heat transfer from the free molecular to the slip-flow regime for cylindrical and cubic geometries. The analyses focus on a surface-averaged heat transfer coefficient at various atmospheric conditions. The sensitivity analyses have been performed by coupling a High Dimensional Model Representation based approach and a Direct Simulation Monte Carlo code. The geometries have been tested with respect to different inputs parameters; altitude, attitude, wall temperature and geometric characteristics. After the initial sensitivity analyses, the N-dimensional surrogate models of the surface-averaged heat transfer coefficient have been defined and tested. Hereby, a shape-based DSMC mesh refinement correction factor for reducing the overall analyses computational times is also presented.