Novel Design for Dust-Induced Closed Return Mars Wind Tunnel model&data

Considering the extreme environmental conditions on Mars, such as the low pressure, CO₂ atmosphere, large-span wind speeds, and low-density sandstorms, we propose a novel design for dust-induced closed return wind tunnel to simulate Martian dust storms. In the design, the supersonic ejector was explored as the power source to drive the airflow and the movement of sand-dust. A sand-dust system was adopted to spray sand-dust inside the wind tunnel to simulate a low-density dust storm on Mars. Thus, the mass flow of the ejected gas and movement characteristics of the sand-dust in the wind tunnel could be obtained. The simulation by Ansys Fluent showed that a large-span wind speed of 5–180 m/s could be achieved in the low-pressure range of 100–1500 Pa. The gas–solid two-phase flow composed of air and dust was further studied by the discrete phase model in Fluent. The introduction of sand-dust hardly affected the speed of the long-span airflow, and it followed the airflow closely. Compared with the open-circuit Mars wind tunnel, the cavity in our approach is utilized as a vacuum vessel, which can greatly reduce the device's overall size, decrease the load on the vacuum system, and improve the CO₂ gas utilization. Thus, it is more feasible to realize extreme Mars dust storm environment simulations on the ground with this system.