Design, Prototyping, and Performance Qualification of Thermal Protection Systems for Hypersonic Space Vehicles

Author(s):  
Ashutosh Kumar Dubey ◽  
Amartya Mukhopadhyay ◽  
Bikramjit Basu
2010 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-9
Author(s):  
Raffaele Savino

Improved interest in ultra-high-temperature ceramics (UHTCs) is being animating the scientific community. This emerging attention is driven by the demand of developing re-usable hot structures as thermal protection systems of aerospace vehicles, able to re-enter in planetary atmospheres at relatively high speed (order of 8-11 Km/s). In contrast to traditional blunt capsules or Shuttle-like vehicles, characterised by poor gliding capabilities and complex thermal protection systems, the future use of UHTCs opens new horizons for the development of spaceplanes with slender fuselage noses and sharp wing leading edges. Advanced aerodynamic configurations reduce the vehicles drag, enhance the vehicles performances, due to a larger manoeuvrability resulting in larger down range, cross range and abort windows, and reduce electromagnetic interferences and communications black-out. Analysis has shown that materials with temperature capability approaching 2000°C and above will be required for these space vehicles, but the state of the art Reinforced Carbon-Carbon (RCC) material, currently used on the Space Shuttle, have maximum use temperatures of approximately 1650°C. The articles collected in this issue provide state-of-art scientific advancements on the subject with particular attention to the potential technological applications. The papers specifically deal with research studies on monolithic ceramic materials, composed primarily of Zirconium and Hafnium Diborides with different additives. The activities are carried out at materials level, with furnace or arc-jet testing, or include developments of UHTC-based hot structures at sub-component level. In the latter case, ultra-high temperature ceramic prototype structures have been developed and tested with embedded structural health monitoring systems. I want to thank all the article contributors for their manuscripts. I hope they will be useful for future basic and applied researches on the subject.


2009 ◽  
Vol 131 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Ferraiuolo ◽  
A. Riccio ◽  
M. Gigliotti ◽  
D. Tescione ◽  
R. Gardi ◽  
...  

Within the framework of the European Experimental Re-entry Test Bed (EXPERT) Program, aimed at improving the understanding of physical phenomena occurring during the return of space vehicles from space to earth, the design of a flying winged experimental payload has been performed in order to assess the thermomechanical behavior and resistance of ultrahigh temperature ceramics (UHTC) in real flight aerothermal environment. The EXPERT flying winglet article is intended to reproduce such conditions. Particular interest covers the design of the interfaces between the UHTC winglet and the EXPERT capsule thermal protection systems since thermal stresses arise during the re-entry phase. The fixation of the winglet to the capsule is achieved by means of dedicated bolts that must tolerate mechanical loads occurring at the first stages of the flight, that is, lift-off, ascent, and separation stages. The thermostructural design is performed by employing ANSYS/Workbench finite element commercial code; simulations take into account transient thermostructural loading conditions, the elastic-fragile behavior of the ceramic materials, and the temperature dependent elastic-plastic behavior of the capsule thermal protection systems. In the postprocessing phase, UHTC critical areas have been identified by following two different approaches. The first approach is deterministic and consists in applying a maximum stress criterion, the stress at a node is compared with the temperature dependent strength at that node. The second approach, which is commonly employed for elastic-fragile materials, is probabilistic and consists in applying a Weibull-like failure criterion. Thermal and structural analyses simulating the re-entry phase have demonstrated that the maximum stresses and temperatures evaluated do not exceed their corresponding limits. Then, a configuration respecting all the requirements of the design has been identified, and its thermal and mechanical performances are discussed in detail.


2015 ◽  
Vol 1132 ◽  
pp. 385-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Winston O. Soboyejo ◽  
J.D. Obayemi ◽  
E. Annan ◽  
E.K. Ampaw ◽  
L. Daniels ◽  
...  

This paper presents a review of high temperature ceramics research for aerospace applications. Following a brief historical perspective, the paper reviews the effort to toughen ceramics for high temperature structural applications. These include: efforts to toughen zirconia-based ceramics, aluminum oxide, silicon carbide, silicon nitride, molybdenum disilicide and zirconium diborides and carbon-based composites. The development of thermal protection systems is also reviewed within the context of thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) and thermal protection systems for space vehicles. The paper concludes with a final section in which the implications of the results are then discussed for the thermostructural applications of ceramics in aerospace structures.


2020 ◽  
pp. 10-21
Author(s):  
V. G. Babashov ◽  
◽  
N. M. Varrik ◽  

The emergence of new types of space and aviation technology necessitates the development of new types of thermal protection systems capable of operating at high temperature and long operating times. There are several types of thermal protection systems for different operating conditions: active thermal protection systems using forced supply of coolant to the protected surface, passive thermal protection systems using materials with low thermal conductivity without additional heat removal, high-temperature systems, which are simultaneously elements of the bearing structure and provide thermal protection, ablation materials. Heat protection systems in the form of rigid tiles and flexible panels, felt and mats are most common kind of heat protecting systems. This article examines the trends of development of flexible reusable heat protection systems intended for passive protection of aircraft structural structures from overheating.


2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (8) ◽  
pp. 2790
Author(s):  
Wenzheng Zhuang ◽  
Chao Yang ◽  
Zhigang Wu

Hybrid corrugated sandwich (HCS) plates have become a promising candidate for novel thermal protection systems (TPS) due to their multi-functionality of load bearing and thermal protection. For hypersonic vehicles, the novel TPS that performs some structural functions is a potential method of saving weight, which is significant in reducing expensive design/manufacture cost. Considering the novel TPS exposed to severe thermal and aerodynamic environments, the mechanical stability of the HCS plates under fluid-structure-thermal coupling is crucial for preliminary design of the TPS. In this paper, an innovative layerwise finite element model of the HCS plates is presented, and coupled fluid-structure-thermal analysis is performed with a parameter study. The proposed method is validated to be accurate and efficient against commercial software simulation. Results have shown that the mechanical instability of the HCS plates can be induced by fluid-structure coupling and further accelerated by thermal effect. The influences of geometric parameters on thermal buckling and dynamic stability present opposite tendencies, indicating a tradeoff is required for the TPS design. The present analytical model and numerical results provide design guidance in the practical application of the novel TPS.


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