Creating Low Density Flexible Ablative Materials

materials and coatings
Creating Low Density Flexible Ablative Materials (TOP2-211)
An Approach to Make Flexible Ablators that are Flexible Char Formers
Overview
NASA has created a new approach to make a low density flexible ablative Thermal Protection Surface (TPS) material. The material is foldable and can be stowed in space for very long periods of time (years) without compromising deployability or performance. These flexible ablators offer an alternative to rigid TPS materials there by reducing design complexity associated with rigid TPS materials resulting in reduced TPS cost. The low density flexible ablator is unique in that the material retains its flexibility after charring. The charred material has similar flexibility and strength to the virgin material. This is in contrast too there flexible ablator concepts whereas stiffer chairs produced during heating.

The Technology
The low density flexible ablator can be deployed by mechanical mechanisms or by inflation and is comparable in performance to its rigid counterparts of the same density and composition. Recent testing in excess of 400W/cm2 demonstrated that the TPS char has good structural integrity and retains similar flexibility to the virgin material, there by eliminating potential failure due to fluttering and internal stress buildup as a result of pyrolysis and shrinkage of the system. These flexible ablators can operate at heating regimes where state of the art flexible TPS (non-ablative) will not survive. Flexible ablators enable and improve many missions including (1) hypersonic inflatable aerodynamic decelerators or other deployed concepts delivering large payload to Mars and (2) replacing rigid TPS materials there by reducing design complexity associated with rigid TPS materials resulting in reduced TPS costs.
PICA being tested in Arcjet Facility What is Ablative TPS?
Benefits
  • Flexible ablators have significant design, system integration and performance advantages
  • Allows for reduction in piece-parts
  • Ease of assemble
  • Enables larger diameter aero-shells
  • Eliminates gap and seam issues (thermo-mechanical, aero-physics phenomena)

Applications
  • Aerospace Engineering
  • Spacecraft
  • Furnace refractory manufacturing
  • Thermal Management
Technology Details

materials and coatings
TOP2-211
ARC-16607-1 ARC-16607-2
Similar Results
Entry-descent
A New Family of Low-Density, Flexible Ablators
The invention provides a family of low density, flexible ablators comprising of a flexible fibrous substrate and a polymer resin. The flexible ablators can withstand a wide range of heating rates (40-540 Watts/cm2) with the upper limit of survivable heat flux being comparable to the survivable heat flux for rigid ablators, such as PICA and Avcoat. The amount and composition of polymer resin can be readily tailored to specific mission requirements. The material can be manufactured via a monolithic approach using versatile manufacturing methods to produce large area heat shields, which provides a material with fewer seams or gaps. The goals of the work are primarily twofold: (i) to develop flexible, ablative Thermal Protection System (TPS) material on a large, blunt shape body which provides aerodynamic drag during hypervelocity atmospheric entry or re-entry, without perishing from heating by the bow shock wave that envelopes the body; and (ii) to provide a relatively inexpensive TPS material that can be bonded to a substrate, that is unaffected by deflections, by differences in thermal expansion or by contraction of a TPS shield, and that is suitable for windward and leeward surfaces of conventional robotic and human entry vehicles that would otherwise employ a rigid TPS shield. This technology produces large areas of heat shields that can be relatively easily attached on the exterior of spacecraft.
CHIEFS Material
Multilayered Fire Protection System
The Multilayered Fire Protection system uses technology from the space craft flexible heat shield for future planetary missions. By optimizing this material for the fire environment, utilizing heat shield test methods, and experimenting with different materials, the NASA team developed a multilayered fire protection system. This system includes an outer textile layer which reflects over 90 percent of the radiant heat, an insulated layer which protects against convective heat and hot gases, and a non-porous film layer which is a gas barrier layer.
Lightweight Hypersonic Thermal Protection Material
Originally developed as a flexible thermal protection system (FTPS), this BNNT mat was designed to shield a 40-ton craft from the high aerothermal flux of atmospheric entry, descent, and landing. The novel lightweight flexible BNNT mat is an excellent flame retardant material and has shown excellent thermal stability and shielding capabilities under a hypersonic thermal flux test in air. The novel BNNT mat or fabric creates an in-situ passivation layer under high thermal flux which minimizes penetration of the atmosphere (air or gas) as well as heat and radiation through the thickness. BNNT effectively diffuses heat throughout the mat or fabric laterally and radially to minimize localized excessive heat. In addition, the lightweight flexible BNNT mat can efficiently alleviate the heat via radiation because of its high thermal emissivity. This invention offers a lightweight, simple, single layer BNNT FTPS with better thermal protection and flame retardation performance in extreme environments while providing structural robustness. The novel BNNT materials can also serve as flame retardants and flame retardant additives in composite systems that are also potentially more colorable compared to carbon nanotube additives.
TUFROC
Thermal protection supplement for reducing interface thermal mismatch
The invention includes an exposed surface cap with a specially formulated coating, an insulator base adjacent to the cap with another specially formulated coating, and one or more pins that extend from the cap through the insulator base to tie the cap and base together through ceramic bonding and mechanical attachment. The cap and insulator base have corresponding depressions and projections that mate and allow for differences in thermal expansion of the cap and base. The cap includes a high-temperature, low density, carbonaceous, fibrous material whose surface is optionally treated with a High Efficiency Tantalum-based Ceramic Composite (HETC) formulation, the fibrous material being drawn from the group consisting of silicon carbide foam and similar porous, high temperature materials. The insulator base and pin(s) contain similar material. The mechanical design is arranged so that thermal expansion differences in the component materials (e.g., cap and insulator base) are easily tolerated. It is applicable to both sharp and blunt leading edge vehicles. This extends the possible application of fibrous insulation to the wing leading edge and/or nose cap on a hypersonic vehicle. The lightweight system comprises a treated carbonaceous cap composed of Refractory Oxidation-resistant Ceramic Carbon Insulation (ROCCI), which provides dimensional stability to the outer mold line, while the fibrous base material provides maximum thermal insulation for the vehicle structure. The composite has graded surface treatments applied by impregnation to both the cap and base. These treatments enable it to survive in an aero-convectively heated environment of high-speed planetary entry. The exact cap and base materials are chosen in combination with modified surface treatments and a specially formulated surface coating, taking into account the duration of exposure and expected surface temperatures for the particular application.
Gloved Hand with Aerogel
Aerogel Reinforced Composites
GRC's aluminosilicate aerogel composites are fabricated using a sol-gel technique. A sol is formed by hydrolyzing an alumina dispersion in acid solution; the alumina may be combined with a silicon precursor to create a sol. Fabrics, papers, and felts are used as reinforcing fibers to form an aerogel composite. The aerogel adheres to the reinforcement without use of sizing or organic binders. (In the case of sized fabrics, the sizing is first removed by heat cleaning.) Composites can be fabricated in a batch process, impregnating individual layers of paper, felt or fabric with the precursor sol, or in a roll-to-roll process. The sol is allowed to gel, and then aged for several days prior to supercritical drying using liquid CO2. Heat treatment of the super critically dried composites can be used to tailor the alumina or Aluminosilicate crystal structure and pore size. In contrast to commercially available insulations, GRC's innovation provides extremely low thermal conductivity (60 mW/m-K at 900°C in argon) at high temperatures, thus enabling use at higher temperatures and improving applicability. In addition, GRC's unique process provides very good adhesion of the aerogel to its reinforcing fibers in alumina papers and zirconia felts, eliminating the spalling seen in other aerogel composites. Finally, GRC's innovation demonstrates low density and extreme resilience to high temperatures and harsh conditions. Seven layers of composite material of 1.25 mm/layer produced a temperature drop of 700°C when tested in the 8-foot high-temperature wind tunnel (8 HTT) at NASA's Langley Research Center. The technology also has withstood heat tests of up to 1200°C. In combination with other insulators, it has withstood fluxes of up to 65 W/cm2, producing a temperature drop of 625°C across 8 mm.
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