In the Rabinovitch Research Group, we combine our fundamental interests in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and high-speed flows, and apply these interests to research topics related to space exploration, high-speed vehicle designs, planetary science and more! Below are some example research topics that we currently work on:
Modeling Supersonic Paracute Inflations:
All spacecraft that have landed successfully on Mars, to date, have used a supersonic Disk-Gap-Band (DGB) parachute during descent. We use a variety of modeling techniques to investigate the physics associated with supersonic parachute inflations and parachute aerodynamics.
Left: Sample parachute inflation from this work. Right: DSMC simulation investigating rarefied parachute permeability from this work.
Sample FSI simulation using the AERO computational suit (https://bitbucket.org/frg/) for a supersonic parachute inflation based on the SR03 flight test.
DSMC simulation using SPARTA (https://sparta.github.io/) looking at the rarefied flow through a parachute broadcloth material under conditions relevant to a supersonic Mars parachute inflation.
Modeling the Enceladus Plume!
The Cassini spacecraft discovered a plume at Enceladus, a moon of Saturn, in the early 2000s. In a recent paper, we investigate how gases dissolved in Enceladus’ ocean could contribute to the eruption process at Enceladus. Our poster from AGU in the fall of 2024 can be seen here.
Left: Cassini image of the Enceladus plume. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/SSI
Right: Schematic of the Cryo-Erupt model. For more details, see our recent paper!
Shock/Droplet Aerobreakup and Impact/Damage Modeling
When a high-speed vehicle flies through adverse weather conditions, such as a storm cloud, water droplets and other particulates will impact the vehicle. At these extremely high speeds, these impacts can cause damage to the vehicle. In collaboration with Prof. Desjardins’ research group at Cornell University, we use the NGA2 computational suite (https://github.com/desjardi/NGA2) to investigate shock/droplet interactions, focusing on droplet breakup and impact. Below is a 2D simulation looking at droplet breakup with a Mach 5 shock (conditions taken from recent experimental work). For more information, please see our conference papers presented at AIAA Aviation in 2023 and 2024.
Venus ATMOSpheric - Sample Return (VATMOS-SR Mission Concept)
Have you ever thought about what it would take to bring a sample of the Venus atmosphere back to Earth for analysis? The VATMOS-SR mission concept would do exactly that! Please see our poster below from the LPSC 2025 conference to learn more about this exciting mission conccept!
