Abstract: Themasslossesofheatshieldsurfacematerialssubjecttotheablationthermalresponseresultingfromaerodynamicheatfluxcanbeefficientlyestimatedinthereentryprocess.Ageometricmodelandablationmassestimationmethodofheatshieldswasstudied.Thethreedegreeoffreedom(3DOF)reentrytrajectorydynamicsequationwasestablished.ThemodifiedNewtonianflowtheory,Detra-Kemp-RiddellandTauber-Suttontheorywereadoptedrespectivelytocalculatetheaerodynamicparameters,stagnationheatfluxandheatradiation.Aone-dimensionalnonlinearheatconductionmodelwasemployedtosimulatetheprocessofcharringmaterialablation. BasedontheNewton-RaphsonandTDMAablationthermalresponsealgorithm, anapproachwaspresentedtoestimatethemasslossesofvehicleheatshields. Theresultsofablationpredictionshowthatthecontinuousdynamicchangeofthesurfacematerialdepthcanberealizedbyanalyzingtheablationthermalresponsealgorithm.Thepresentedapproachcanbeanavailablesurrogateofheatbalanceintegral(HBI)method.Theestimatedablationmasscanhelptooptimizethegeometricmodelofheatshieldsandreentrytrajectory.

Key words: Ablationthermalresponse, Heatshield, Reentryvehicle, Masslosses, Finiteelementmethod