The initial development of ablation heat protection, an historical perspective
Abstract
The development of ablative heat protection methods is traced from phenolic bonded asbestos fibers casings for ejectable data packages for the Atlas rocket nozzles to ablative melting of meteorites. The application of the Newton-Raphson theory to explain the large heat of ablation and to quantify the increased heat load on the boundary layer due to the presence of hydrocarbon products is discussed, along with the enthalpy of combustion and the oxygen concentration. The usage of pyrolytic graphite, Teflon, and low-density polymers for the Mercury and Apollo flights is outlined. The synergistic combination of scientific disciplines is stressed as a necessary adjunct to progress in new fields of applications as a result of deriving new knowledge from proven principles.
- Publication:
-
Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets
- Pub Date:
- February 1982
- DOI:
- 10.2514/3.62196
- Bibcode:
- 1982JSpRo..19....3S
- Keywords:
-
- Ablative Materials;
- Heat Shielding;
- Hypersonic Reentry;
- Reentry Shielding;
- Thermal Protection;
- Aerodynamic Heat Transfer;
- Asbestos;
- Atlas Launch Vehicles;
- Digital Computers;
- Finite Difference Theory;
- Newton-Raphson Method;
- Phenols;
- Teflon (Trademark);
- Thermal Control Coatings;
- Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer