Atmospheric entry and strewn fields estimation for rubble-pile meteoroids

Chengfan Feng, Xiangyuan Zeng*, Ziwen Li, Qingbo Gan

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

One of the potentially catastrophic risks to human survival is the impact of a meteorite on Earth. When a meteoroid enters the atmosphere at an ultra-high speed, a series of complex evolution processes occur, mainly including ablation, fragmentation, airburst, and ground impact. This paper proposes a new systematic dynamical method for simulating the entire process of a meteoroid entering the atmosphere. In the new method, the DEM (Discrete Element Method) model is utilized to describe the initial structure and shape of a rubble-pile meteoroid. A combination of an aerodynamic trajectory model, a thermal ablation model, and an airburst model is introduced to simulate the entry process. Particularly, the Jone-Wilkins-Lee state equation is employed to characterize the large-scale airburst phenomenon caused by the internal expansion of the meteoroid. Referring to the observational data of the Chelyabinsk meteorite event, this paper parametrically simulates the trajectories, ablation, fragmentation, and airburst, and predicts the strewn field of different-shaped meteoroids. Compared with existing debris cloud models, this method considers the shape effect of rubble-pile meteoroids and can obtain the strewn field as a side effect. Numerical validation is carried out, indicating the result of the new method is more in line with the actual scenarios.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)3123-3136
Number of pages14
JournalAdvances in Space Research
Volume74
Issue number7
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Oct 2024

Keywords

  • Discrete element method
  • JWL equation of state
  • Prediction of the strewn field
  • Rubble-pile meteoroid
  • Thermal ablation

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