The 12th International Conference on Scour and Erosion (ICSE 2025)

Plume-Surface Interaction (PSI) presents significant challenges for lunar missions, as rocket exhaust causes regolith erosion, mobilizing high-velocity particles that jeopardize landing safety, hardware integrity, and visibility. This study examines the erosion dynamics of BP-1 lunar regolith simulant under fluid forces and evaluates potential mitigation strategies. Erosion Function Apparatus (EFA) tests using water flow showed significant particle movement in untreated regolith, while treatments to enhance cohesion—such as cyanoacrylate, PLA plastic, and sintering—eliminated measurable erosion. Compaction provided only limited improvement. Also, CFD-DEM simulations in STAR-CCM+ were done to study the influence of cohesion on erosion dynamics and crater formation. The results revealed that increasing cohesion significantly reduced particle movement, preventing crater formation under high-velocity plume forces. These findings highlight the importance of cohesion in reducing PSI impacts, particularly for larger landers with more powerful plumes.