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Completed TRL 2 (started at 2, targeting 3)
Carbon-based, low-density ablating Thermal Protection Systems (TPS), typically a composite of phenolic resin and porous carbonfiberspreform, have become an essential component of a variety of spacecraft. As such, a high level of importance has been placed indeveloping accurate simulations of these heat shields as they disintegrate during re-entry. One area currently in need of additionalstudy is the effect of pyrolysis gases, formed from thermally degrading phenolic, on the carbon preform as travels out of the TPS. Itis commonly thought that certain products of this pyrolysis gas can deposit carbon on the surface, causing a thickening effect. Thiscoking has the possibility of substantially altering the ablation behavior of the material. However, few models exist that attempt tocharacterize this effect in the context of re-entry. To better understand this behavior, this proposal seeks to utilize DSMC techniquesto simulate coking of ablative TPS materials. A simulation framework will be developed to simulate the flow of methane, a majorpyrolysis product, through a hot porous carbon fiber preform material. Models for both the gas-phase and surface reactions will beemployed to simulate interactions of methane products with carbon fiber preform, with emphasis on adsorption through a stickingcoefficient. The goal of this research is to generate a high-fidelity coking model that can be integrated into existing ablation codes forimproved accuracy. The direct benefit of improved ablation and thermal modeling is that it allows for better-refined safety marginsfor heat shield designs; this allows future missions to reduce the size of their TPS while still ensuring mission safety. This proposalis directly aligned with the objectives outlined in TA 14 (Thermal Management Systems) and TA 9 (Entry, Descent, and LandingSystems) and with the mission of NASA's Entry Systems Modeling Project under the Space Technology Mission Directorate.
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