Rocket Exhaust Blowing Soil in Near Vacuum Conditions is Faster than Predicted by Continuum Scaling Laws

TL;DR

This study investigates how rocket exhaust erodes lunar and Martian soil under near-vacuum conditions, revealing erosion rates faster than continuum models predict, especially at very low pressures.

Contribution

It provides new experimental data on soil erosion by rocket exhaust in low-pressure environments, highlighting deviations from existing continuum-based scaling laws.

Findings

Erosion rate increases at lower pressures beyond predictions.

Flow regime transition from continuum to free molecular flow affects erosion.

Complex dependency of erosion rate on multiple parameters was observed.

Abstract

Experiments were performed to study how rocket exhaust blows soil in lunar and Martian conditions. Jets of gas were blown downwardly at various granular materials while a camera recorded the formation of scour holes as the material was removed. The experiments were performed in a series of conditions ranging from ambient 101 kPa pressure down to 0.3 kPa. This includes the range that is relevant for lunar conditions, because it is not hard vacuum inside the rocket exhaust where soil is being eroded. Prior work in ambient conditions showed that erosion rate is proportional to the square of the densimetric Froude number. However, the prior work was not performed at low pressures. In the new work, preliminary results show that as the gas density is so low that gas flow around the sand grains is no longer in the continuum regime, then erosion rate is faster than predicted by the earlier results. The dependency of erosion rate on various parameters is determined, but it turns out to be more complex than expected so additional experimental work will be required to develop complete scaling relationships.