Degradation behaviour of a composite material for thermal protection systems part I - Experimental characterization

Thermogravimetric studies and combined thermal analysis techniques have bee n used to characterize an ablative composite for thermal protection systems . The aim of the work was to utilize these techniques to obtain the main pa rameters used in the computer simulation of the space re-entry. In particul ar, a phenomenological model of the degradation kinetics of a silicon-based ablative composite has been developed using thermogravimetric analysis cou pled with mass spectroscopic analysis. Simultaneous thermal analysis has al so been used to calculate the ablation heat. The results are used as input for a computer model, developed in Part II, to enable calculation of the te mperature profiles inside a thermal protection shield during the re-entry i nto the earth's atmosphere. Such a program can also be used in materials se lection. (C) 1998 Kluwer Academic Publishers.