Fabrication and Characterization of HNBR-Silica/Carbon Phenolic Ablative Composites as an Effective Thermal Protection System (TPS)

Abstract

The increasing demands of thermal protection system (TPS) in aerospace and defense industry focused the scientists and engineers to develop thermal protection/insulation that can with stand at high temperature and pressure environment. These thermal protections are composed of special materials having ablative properties, shielding the space vehicles and defense ammunition from thermal destruction during exposure at high temperatures and flow of flame. In the present research work the effort has been accentuated to develop a thermal protection/insulation that can meet the requirement of aerospace applications. During the course of research, Two HNBR based thermal protection systems (TPS) were successfully developed using silica phenolic and carbon phenolic as fillers by filler particle size variation and fixing filler amount of filler in different formulations. Both the composite thermal protection systems were characterized for their effectiveness and functional properties by using various analytical techniques. The fabricated rubber composites demonstrated good mechanical, thermal and ablative properties that can meet requirements of aerospace industry for specific applications. Furthermore; a comparative study was also carried out to perceive the effects of particle size of the filler on thermo-mechanical and ablative properties of both fabricated composites. The results showed that with the decrease of the particle size of the filler. Mechanical properties and thermal stability increase, while ablation rate decreases. The experimental data indicated that the silica Phenolic based composites have better mechanical, thermal and ablative properties as compared to its counterpart carbon Phenolic.