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 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2023, American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA. All rights reserved.
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 -