TY - GEN
T1 - The Material Response of PICA-NuSil to a Hypersonic Flow Environment
AU - Bessire, Brody K.
AU - Meurisse, Jeremie B.E.
AU - Mansour, Nagi N.
AU - Panerai, Francesco
N1 - A successful test campaign would not have been realized without the hard work of the HyMETS facility staff at NASA Langley: Scott Splinter, Jeff Gragg, Bradley Butler, Mark Roth, and Wayne Gouge. Furthermore, critical support was provided by personnel at the NASA Ames Research Center (ARC). Gregory Gonzales and Matt Switzer provided expertise for NuSil\u00AE coating activities and Nichole Carder collected surface profile measurements. The authors are grateful for the assistance of Jose F. Chavez-Garcia during the collection SEM and EDS data. Finally, this test series was performed with the support and leadership of Michael Barnhardt (Entry Systems Modeling Project Manager \u2013 NASA Ames Research Center) and Aaron Brandis (Principal Investigator Entry Systems Modeling \u2013 NASA Ames Research Center).
PY - 2023
Y1 - 2023
N2 - Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA) is NASA’s baseline thermal protection system for missions to Mars. PICA is friable; therefore, NuSil® CV-1144-0 is applied to the surface of flight hardware to mitigate the contamination of spacecraft sensors. NuSil is composed of a polysiloxane resin system that can transform into an oxidation-resistant coating upon heating. Therefore, a pathfinder campaign was conducted at the Hypersonic Materials Environmental Test System (HyMETS) at the NASA Langley Research Center to investigate the material response of instrumented sphere-cone models made from PICA coated with NuSil®. Analysis of the post-test data is presented and suggests that NuSil® impacts the material response of test articles subjected to oxidizing atmospheres, as evidenced by a reduction of the measured surface temperature and in-depth temperature response. Finally, a four-step ablation mechanism is proposed based on observations from high-speed video, optical emission spectroscopy, thermal analysis, and post-test surface characterization.
AB - Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablator (PICA) is NASA’s baseline thermal protection system for missions to Mars. PICA is friable; therefore, NuSil® CV-1144-0 is applied to the surface of flight hardware to mitigate the contamination of spacecraft sensors. NuSil is composed of a polysiloxane resin system that can transform into an oxidation-resistant coating upon heating. Therefore, a pathfinder campaign was conducted at the Hypersonic Materials Environmental Test System (HyMETS) at the NASA Langley Research Center to investigate the material response of instrumented sphere-cone models made from PICA coated with NuSil®. Analysis of the post-test data is presented and suggests that NuSil® impacts the material response of test articles subjected to oxidizing atmospheres, as evidenced by a reduction of the measured surface temperature and in-depth temperature response. Finally, a four-step ablation mechanism is proposed based on observations from high-speed video, optical emission spectroscopy, thermal analysis, and post-test surface characterization.
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U2 - 10.2514/6.2023-3325
DO - 10.2514/6.2023-3325
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:85200324913
SN - 9781624107047
T3 - AIAA Aviation and Aeronautics Forum and Exposition, AIAA AVIATION Forum 2023
BT - AIAA Aviation and Aeronautics Forum and Exposition, AIAA AVIATION Forum 2023
PB - American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA
T2 - AIAA Aviation and Aeronautics Forum and Exposition, AIAA AVIATION Forum 2023
Y2 - 12 June 2023 through 16 June 2023
ER -