Abstract:
The atmosphere of Venus is a supercritical mixture primarily composed of nitrogen and carbon dioxide that has hitherto precluded long term in-situ measurements at the surface. This paper presents a preliminary thermal model that can be used to predict the transient performance of the thermopile type heat flux sensor under development at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory to measure the planetary heat flux of Venus for the first time. Particular attention is given to the determination of boundary conditions and ANSYS Fluent software settings necessary to distinguish planetary heat flux from comparatively large radiative and convective fluxes present at the surface. This paper outlines the scientific merit in collecting transient heat flux measurements to constrain the thermophysical properties of the Venusian surface and details the corresponding challenge of interpreting the signal produced from a thermopile type sensor with a variable reference temperature. The thermal model presented in this paper can be used as a first estimate to predict the voltage output of the sensor for selected conditions on the surface of Venus.
