A three-dimensional strategy to compute mesh displacement following surface recession due to ablation is proposed and implemented in the finite volume material response code MoDeTheC. Due to the application to the thermal degradation of space debris during atmospheric reentry, the strategy developed is based onto a very general formulation that can deal with any mesh topology and object shape without preliminary identification of ablated surfaces. First, a new moving mesh method modifies the grid to take into account changes due to ablation. Subsequently, a shape preservation mesh balancing method redistributes the mesh vertices to maintain the grid quality. Finally, a smoothing algorithm is applied to prevent high frequency mesh oscillations. The new 3D mesh displacement strategy is verified on many 2D and 3D test cases to prove the capabilities of the method.

The spacecraft oriented code ARES developed at ON-ERA since 2005 to compute Earth and Mars atmospheric reentries is introduced. Then, a new 3D mesh displacement strategy to computed 3D space debris ablation is presented. This strategy is implemented in the material response solver MoDeTheC, which is one of the 4 independant solvers coupled within ARES code. Verification test cases show the capacity of the strategy to deal with important recession and shape changes. This strategy is then used in ARES software to rebuild a wind tunnel ablation test. Finally, the atmospheric reentry of a tank made of an orthotropic composite material is computed, taking into account degradation reaction and shape changes. Two coupling strategy in ARES software are used and compared.