From Coils to Surface Recession: Fully Coupled Simulation of Ablation in ICP Wind Tunnels
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| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| _version_ | 1866912909671530496 |
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| author | Kumar, Sanjeev Munafo, Alessandro Vollmer, Blaine Bodony, Daniel J. Elliott, Gregory S. Stephani, Kelly A. Kearney, Sean Panesi, Marco |
| author_facet | Kumar, Sanjeev Munafo, Alessandro Vollmer, Blaine Bodony, Daniel J. Elliott, Gregory S. Stephani, Kelly A. Kearney, Sean Panesi, Marco |
| contents | This work presents a fully coupled, multiphysics computational framework for predicting the thermo-chemical material response of thermal protection systems in inductively coupled plasma (ICP) wind tunnels. The framework integrates a high-fidelity Navier-Stokes plasma solver, an electromagnetic field solver, and a discontinuous-Galerkin material response solver using a partitioned coupling strategy. This enables an ab initio, end-to-end simulation of the 350 kW Plasmatron X facility at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), including plasma generation, electromagnetic heating, near-wall thermochemistry, and time-accurate material ablation. The model captures key ICP physics such as vortex-mode recirculation, Joule-heating-driven plasma formation, and Lorentz-force-induced flow confinement, and accurately predicts the transition from subsonic to supersonic jet behavior at low pressures. Validation against cold-wall calorimetry and graphite ablation experiments shows that predicted stagnation-point heat fluxes fall well within experimental uncertainty, while fully coupled simulations accurately reproduce measured stagnation temperature histories and recession rates with errors below 12% and 10%, respectively. Remaining discrepancies during early transient heating are attributed to uncertainties in power-coupling efficiency, equilibrium ablation modeling, and material property datasets. Overall, the framework demonstrates strong predictive capability for ICP wind tunnel environments and provides a foundation for improved design, interpretation, and planning of hypersonic material testing campaigns. |
| format | Preprint |
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arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2602_15500 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | From Coils to Surface Recession: Fully Coupled Simulation of Ablation in ICP Wind Tunnels Kumar, Sanjeev Munafo, Alessandro Vollmer, Blaine Bodony, Daniel J. Elliott, Gregory S. Stephani, Kelly A. Kearney, Sean Panesi, Marco Plasma Physics This work presents a fully coupled, multiphysics computational framework for predicting the thermo-chemical material response of thermal protection systems in inductively coupled plasma (ICP) wind tunnels. The framework integrates a high-fidelity Navier-Stokes plasma solver, an electromagnetic field solver, and a discontinuous-Galerkin material response solver using a partitioned coupling strategy. This enables an ab initio, end-to-end simulation of the 350 kW Plasmatron X facility at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC), including plasma generation, electromagnetic heating, near-wall thermochemistry, and time-accurate material ablation. The model captures key ICP physics such as vortex-mode recirculation, Joule-heating-driven plasma formation, and Lorentz-force-induced flow confinement, and accurately predicts the transition from subsonic to supersonic jet behavior at low pressures. Validation against cold-wall calorimetry and graphite ablation experiments shows that predicted stagnation-point heat fluxes fall well within experimental uncertainty, while fully coupled simulations accurately reproduce measured stagnation temperature histories and recession rates with errors below 12% and 10%, respectively. Remaining discrepancies during early transient heating are attributed to uncertainties in power-coupling efficiency, equilibrium ablation modeling, and material property datasets. Overall, the framework demonstrates strong predictive capability for ICP wind tunnel environments and provides a foundation for improved design, interpretation, and planning of hypersonic material testing campaigns. |
| title | From Coils to Surface Recession: Fully Coupled Simulation of Ablation in ICP Wind Tunnels |
| topic | Plasma Physics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2602.15500 |