Design and CFD Analysis of the Fluid Dynamic Sampling System of the "MicroMED" Optical Particle Counter

MicroMED is an optical particle counter that will be part of the ExoMars 2020 mission. Its goal is to provide the first ever in situ measurements of both size distribution and concentration of airborne Martian dust. The instrument samples Martian air, and it is based on an optical system that illumi...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Sensors (Basel, Switzerland) Switzerland), 2019-11, Vol.19 (22), p.5037
Main Authors: Mongelluzzo, Giuseppe, Esposito, Francesca, Cozzolino, Fabio, Franzese, Gabriele, Ruggeri, Alan Cosimo, Porto, Carmen, Molfese, Cesare, Scaccabarozzi, Diego, Saggin, Bortolino
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Airborne instruments
Airborne sensing
Atmosphere
cfd
Computational fluid dynamics
Design analysis
Dust
Efficiency
exomars 2020 mission
Fluid dynamics
Grain size
In situ measurement
Laser beams
Lasers
Mars
Mars dust
micromed instrument
Particle size distribution
Radiation
Radiation counters
Reynolds number
Simulation
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Summary:MicroMED is an optical particle counter that will be part of the ExoMars 2020 mission. Its goal is to provide the first ever in situ measurements of both size distribution and concentration of airborne Martian dust. The instrument samples Martian air, and it is based on an optical system that illuminates the sucked fluid by means of a collimated laser beam and detects embedded dust particles through their scattered light. By analyzing the scattered light profile, it is possible to obtain information about the dust grain size and speed. To do that, MicroMED's fluid dynamic design should allow dust grains to cross the laser-illuminated sensing volume. The instrument's Elegant Breadboard was previously developed and tested, and Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) analysis enabled determining its criticalities. The present work describes how the design criticalities were solved by means of a CFD simulation campaign. At the same time, it was possible to experimentally validate the results of the analysis. The updated design was then implemented to MicroMED's Flight Model.
ISSN:1424-8220
1424-8220
DOI:10.3390/s19225037