Numerical simulation of an iron meteoroid entering into Earth’s atmosphere using DSMC and a radiation solver with comparison to ground testing data

Observation missions of meteoroids entering the Earth’s atmosphere are conducted regularly. Meanwhile a method to replicate the flight in a ground test facilities has been established. However, numerical simulations with subsequent comparison of the spectroscopic data, on the other hand, are not yet widely used in this field. This is mainly due to the complex flow environment, which includes not only non-equilibrium radiation, but also the outgassing of species from the meteoroid that do not enter the shock since they have only the thermal velocity of the wall without macroscopic flow and therefore cannot heat up as much as the other species. This paper presents a numerical approach to replicate experimental measurements. The Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method is used and bi-directionally coupled with a radiation solver to simulate the atmospheric entry in 80km of an iron meteorite with a diameter of 38mm. The paper provides information and references on the numerical models used, the challenges encountered, and the simulation results. The study shows that the simulation models are well-suited to handle the non-equilibrium effects of meteorite entry and show good agreement with the experimental measurements.