NSMB Validation Cases

BSUV-2

BSUV-2 flight-case validation of thermo-chemical non-equilibrium and radiation in a hypersonic re-entry flow.

Original report plot

Stagnation-line temperature

Original thermo-chemical model comparison at the BSUV-2 stagnation line.

Original BSUV-2 report plot of stagnation-line temperature profiles for multiple chemistry and thermo-chemical models

Original plot from the BSUV-2 report, Figures 13 and 17.

Physics figures

Supporting flowfield, geometry and experiment images from the report.

Source PDF
BSUV-2 forward vehicle and instrument layout

Flight experiment

Forward vehicle, photometers, scanning spectrometer and fiber-optic instrumentation.

BSUV-2 capsule geometry used for the NSMB simulation

Simulation geometry

Three-dimensional capsule geometry used to resolve the shock layer around the vehicle.

Conclusion

Why the results are comparable

The shock position and post-shock temperature shape are comparable across the NSMB configurations and reference calculations. The remaining spread is mainly a model effect: chemistry and vibrational relaxation shift the peak and the downstream temperature, while the 3D result tracks the reference behavior most closely.