1. ADBSat: Verification and validation of a novel panel method for quick aerodynamic analysis of satellites
- Author
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Luciana A. Sinpetru, Nicholas H. Crisp, Peter C.E. Roberts, Valeria Sulliotti-Linner, Virginia Hanessian, Georg H. Herdrich, Francesco Romano, Daniel Garcia-Almiñana, Sílvia Rodríguez-Donaire, Simon Seminari, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Departament d'Enginyeria de Projectes i de la Construcció, Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. Departament d'Organització d'Empreses, and Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. TUAREG - Turbulence and Aerodynamics in Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Research Group
- Subjects
Direct simulation Monte Carlo ,Artificial satellites -- Aerodynamics ,Física [Àrees temàtiques de la UPC] ,Montecarlo, Mètode de ,FOS: Physical sciences ,General Physics and Astronomy ,Satèl·lits artificials -- Aerodinàmica ,Space Physics (physics.space-ph) ,Satellite drag ,Monte Carlo method ,Free molecular flow ,Software validation ,Physics - Space Physics ,Hardware and Architecture ,Orbital aerodynamics ,Astrophysics - Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics ,Instrumentation and Methods for Astrophysics (astro-ph.IM) ,Panel method - Abstract
We present the validation of ADBSat, a novel implementation of the panel method including a fast pseudo-shading algorithm, that can quickly and accurately determine the forces and torques on satellites in free-molecular flow. Our main method of validation is comparing test cases between ADBSat, the current de facto standard of direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC), and published literature. ADBSat exhibits a significantly shorter runtime than DSMC and performs well, except where deep concavities are present in the satellite models. The shading algorithm also experiences problems when a large proportion of the satellite surface area is oriented parallel to the flow, but this can be mitigated by examining the body at small angles to this configuration (${\pm}$ 0.1{\deg}). We recommend that an error interval on ADBSat outputs of up to 3\% is adopted. Therefore, ADBSat is a suitable tool for quickly determining the aerodynamic characteristics of a wide range of satellite geometries in different environmental conditions in VLEO. It can also be used in a complementary manner to identify cases that warrant further investigation using other numerical-based methods., Comment: 30 pages, 15 figures. Submitted to Computer Physics Communications
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