Configuration design and numerical analysis of a Martian dust storm simulation wind tunnel for Mars airplanes and rovers

The environment in a Martian dust storm is critical to the operation of Mars airplanes and rovers due to high speed dust which may cause surface abrasion and equipment failure. In this work, a Martian dust storm simulation wind tunnel (MDSSWT) is designed and numerically investigated. This facility would be capable of performing simulation of the environment inside a Martian dust storm for ground-based reliability tests on electronic instruments and material coatings equipped on Martian explorers, and may be utilized in aerodynamic research on scale-down aircraft models. A secondary injector system (SIS) was designed for inducing a recirculating flow. The objective of the current study is the presentation of results obtained by applying CFD simulations for the dust blasting performance of this facility, some analytical results on the properties of the interior flow such as flow distribution, turbulence level and static pressure were investigated. Such simulations provide theoretical prediction of the facility for both gas mode and gas-dust coexisting mode under given working conditions and investigation of the SIS system for flow re-circulation. This work is believed to be significant for testing instruments in a Martian storm as well as testing the reliability of electronic and mechanical devices.