Thermal Protection System

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Thermal Protection System (TPS) is a shield that protects the aircraft from the severe aerodynamic heating which arises during hypersonic reign flight. The thermal protection system consists of various types of materials which applied externally in such a manner over the outer surface of the aircraft, in order to protect the aircraft from severe aerodynamic environment or to maintain the aircraft outer surface temperature within the acceptable limits, primarily during the entry phase and hypersonic flight. When an object passes thought the fluid such as air at high speed, due to the frictional force between surface and fluid particles, the outer surface of the flying object will subject to severe heating. This process of heating is called aerodynamic …show more content…

atomic bomb. After that TPS plays a key role in missile technology, because without an efficient thermal protection system, the missile would be unable to withstand the high heat generated during their flight. Again another two innovations made TPS more efficient. One was proposed by H. Julian Allen at the Ames Aeronautical Laboratory [6]. In that TPS, the counter intuitive blunt body concept was used, wherein a strong bow shock wave was developed by blunt vehicle body which will deflect away the most of the heat load. The second innovation was Ablative Thermal Protection System. Ablative TPS provides thermal insulation by ablation process. Ablation process is a thermochemomechanical phenomenon provides thermal insulation through the degradation of the outer surface of the material and the formation of a refractory char on the material surface, thereby ablative materials hindering the transfer of heat into the interior of the material or structure. In this method, the aircraft was covered by ablative materials which protect the aircraft by thermo-chemical phenomena through absorption, evaporation and insulation. In absorption process, the ablative material used on the TPS absorbs the heat energy, once it attains its maximum limit it starts evaporating, thus most of the heat energy generated during the flight get expelled out. And in insulation, char layer formed on the outer surface will act as an effective insulator which protects the vehicle from the remaining heat. The Space and military mission requirements led to a rapid development of practical ablative thermal protection materials. Essentially, the blunt body concept coupled with ablative materials is designed to deflect, reject and reradiate the heat

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