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DSMC Code Simulates Rarefied Gas Dynamic Environments

    › Benefits
    › Applications
    › Licensing and Partnering Opportunity
    › Contact Information

Innovators at NASA’s Johnson Space Center have developed software that is an easy-to-use implementation of the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method that can be applied to a broad base of low-density flow problems. DSMC is the de facto standard for predicting low-density flows because the continuum-based equations used by traditional computational fluid dynamics codes are invalid in rarefied conditions. The DSMC Analysis Code (DAC) software features surface modeling components that allow users to model complex geometries and boundary conditions quickly and easily. Its built-in flexibility, automation, and intuitiveness, combined with the potential of its parallel processing capabilities, provides an easy-to-use, high-performance solution for analyzing rarefied flows. This software may be released to U.S. persons only.


Benefits
  • Automated: Offers automatic discretization of the flow field to save time and ensure appropriate refinement throughout the computational domain
  • Optimized: Determines optimal settings for temporal discretization and other simulation parameters
  • Efficient: Uses parallel processing to dramatically reduce the amount of time required to obtain results

Applications
  • Flight in the upper portion of a planet’s atmosphere
  • Rarefied environments generated on-orbit through the use of reaction control system thrusters for maneuvering
  • Overboard venting of waste gases
  • Modeling of process gas flows in various vacuum deposition processes

Licensing and Partnering Opportunity

This technology is being made available through JSC’s Technology Transfer and Commercialization Office, which seeks to transfer technology into and out of NASA to benefit the space program and U.S. industry. NASA invites companies to consider licensing this technology for commercial applications.


Contact Information

If you would like more information about this technology or about NASA’s technology transfer program, please contact:

Technology Transfer and Commercialization Office
NASA’s Johnson Space Center
Phone: 281-483-3809
E-mail: jsc-techtran@mail.nasa.gov
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