2011 Polezhaev, Yury V.

http://www.thermopedia.com/content/285/?tid=110&sn=5

ABLATION

Ablation is a means of thermal protection based on physicochemical transformations of solid
substances by convective or radiation heat flow. The heat-shield effect is the sum of the heat of
phase and chemical transformations of the substance and the reduction of the heat flow when
the ablation products are forced into the surrounding medium (see Heat Protection). Ablation
can be referred to as a sacrificial method of heat protection, since in order to maintain
acceptable heat conditions in a body, its surface layer is partially destroyed. Ablation can, as a
rule, be allowed in objects of single application; for instance, the re-entry space vehicles,
combustion chambers and the nozzle units of solid-propellant rocket engines. The use of
ablative facing has a number of advantages over other methods of heat protection. The main
advantage is the self-regulation process, i.e., the change in the ablation rate depending on the
level of pressure and temperature of the gas flowing across the surface. Thanks to high values
of heat of physicochemical transformations and to the injection heat effect, the use of ablative
facing materials exceeds substantially in efficiency that of systems functioning on the heat
storage principle or on the principle of convective cooling (see Heat Protection). Together with
penetrating cooling, ablative facings form the class of active heat protection, the basis for
which is the direct effect on the process of heat transfer from the surrounding medium to the
body.
The most commonly used ablative materials are the composites, i.e., materials consisting of a
high-melting point matrix and an organic binder. The matrix can be glass, asbestos, carbon or
polymer fibers braided in different ways. In some cases, a honeycomb construction can be
used, filled with a mixture of organic and nonorganic substances and possessing high heat-
insulating characteristics (as used, for instance, on the space vehicle Apollo).
Shown in Figure 1 is a schematic model of the destruction of a composite material from a high-
melting point matrix and an organic binder. The characteristic property of such heat-shielding
coverings is the presence of two fronts or zones, to be more exact, in which physicochemical
transformations take place. In convective heating, a viscous melt film can be formed on the
surface of such composite materials. Despite its thinness, the film strongly affects the
destruction process. In particular, the coalescence of particles of the surface layer prevents their
erosion blow-off by the flow. The melt film also reduces the rate of oxidation of chemically-
active components of the material by the incoming flow of gas.

Figure 1. Schematic model for the destruction of an ablating composite material.
Further into the surface lies a comparatively thick layer of charred organic binder reinforced
by high-melting fibers. Still deeper is the thermal decomposition zone, where a mixture of
volatile and solid (coke) components is formed. The volatile components filtered through the
porous matrix are injected into the boundary layer of the incoming gas flow. An intensive
sublimation of glass or other oxides which form high-melting fibers occurs on the surface of
the melt film. The fraction of gaseous ablation products in the total ablation mass can,
therefore, be high. The particles of coke are practically pure carbon; thus, at the melting
temperature of glass they remain solid. The spreading film of glass breaks out the porous
structure of the charred layer and carries away the particles of coke. The later, in turn, affects
the flow of the melt, increasing its effective viscosity (see Melting).
At high temperatures, the coke particles in the melt film are not inert components they
interact actively both with glass and with any oxidant present in the gas flow. Tens of various
strongly interacting components can exist in the boundary layer over the surface of the
composite heat-shielding covering. The choice of a theoretical model for the destruction
process of such materials, presents considerable difficulties. However, on the basis of extensive
experimental and theoretical studies of thermophysical, thermodynamic and strength
phenomena which attend the process of the incident flow effect, we have succeeded in creating
a schematic model or a mechanism for the destruction of a heat-facing layer. Such a
mechanism has been designed only for some classical representatives of the range of
composites (see Sublimation,Melting). At the same time, advances in chemistry and materials
technology extend the possibilities of selecting improved ablation materials. In this context, a
demand arose for some unique parameter to compare various types of ablative materials
convenient for both theoretical and experimental studies. One such parameter is the effective
enthalpy of destruction, symbolized as heff.
The effective enthalpy defines the total thermal energy expenditure necessary to break down a
unit mass of ablative material. The problem of comparing numerous ablative materials is most
easily demonstrated for a quasi-stationary destruction (see Heat Conduction) when the
velocity of all isotherms or destruction fronts inside the material coincides with the velocity of
the outer surface displacement. In this case, the temperature profile inside the heat-shielding
covering is described by a set of exponents, and the heat flux spent on heating inner layers
does not depend on the material thermal conductivity .
Let us first consider a destruction process under conditions of exposure to convective heating.
The thermal balance on a destructing surface (Figure 2) can be written as follows:



Figure 2. Destruction process with convective heating.
Here, (/cp)0 is the heat transfer coefficient, and he and hw are the enthalpies of the gases in the
incoming flow and the wall, respectively. In contrast to a nondestructing ablative facing, the
convective heat flux supplied from without is expended not only for heating the material
( ) and by radiant re-emission of the four heated surfaces ( T
4
W ) but also for the surface
(with mass loss rate and bulk (with mass loss rate physicochemical transformations,
whose thermal effects are evaluated as Qw and Q. If a melt film is formed on the surface of
a heat-shielding covering, then , where is the mass loss rate of a substance
in a molten form. The total thermal effect of the bulk failure Q contains not only the heat of
matrix melting, but also the thermal effect of the thermal decomposition of an organic binder,
the heat of heterogeneous interaction between the glass and coke inside the charred layer, etc.
In a similar manner, the thermal effect of surface destruction Qw must account for the thermal
effect of evaporation of a melted film and the burning of the coke particles in the incoming
flow of gas.
Gaseous ablation products which penetrate into the boundary layer cause a reduction of a
convective heat flow due to the so-called injection effect. We can evaluate the blocking action
of the injection effect by a linear approximation (see Heat Protection):

Here, is the dimensionless coefficient of injection ( < 1), which in the general case depends
on flow conditions in the boundary layer (laminar or turbulent) and the ratio of molecular
masses of the gas injected and the incoming flow. Unlike other effects influencing the
absorption of the heat energy supplied, the injection effect rises steeply with the increasing
velocity or temperature of the incoming flow and finally becomes predominant.
If we denote the share of gaseous ablation products in the total mass loss of the substance by
( = / ), then we can obtain a generalized characteristic of destruction power, namely,
the effective enthalpy of destruction, heff:

The effective enthalpy determines the amount of heat which can be blocked when breaking
down a unit mass of covering material (whose surface temperature is Tw) through
physicochemical processes. The higher the effective enthalpy, the better the heat-shielding
material. We place emphasis on the independence of the effective enthalpy from the
geometrical dimensions or the shape of the body. Actually, as distinct from a heat flux whose
value, with the given parameters of the incoming flow (pe, he), is inversely proportional
to (where RN is the typical dimension of the body; for instance, the radius of curvature in
the vicinity of the critical point), the effective enthalpy is unaffected either by the shape or the
dimension of the body. This qualifies it as a parameter for relating laboratory and real heat-
loading situations.
We can see from the definition of effective enthalpy that in all cases when 0, it must
increase substantially with the rise in the enthalpy of the stagnated flow he. The parameters of
the incoming gas flow (pressure Pe and enthalpy he) can effect heff through changes in the
temperature of the destructing surface Tw, the fraction of the ablation which is in gaseous form
and the thermal effect of surface processes Qw. The effect of surface temperature Tw on
heff can be considered to be rather limited. A typical dependence of Tw, and heff on enthalpy
he and pressure Pe in breaking down glass reinforced plastics in an air flow is shown in Figures
3, 4 and 5. The flow condition (laminar or turbulent) in the boundary layer determines the
injection coefficient (see Heat Protection), which affects radically the dependence of heffon
he (Figure 6 ). If the ablative material does not contain oxides, then, as a rule, the share of
gasification is close to unity. For graphite-like heat-shield covering, in particular, = 1. In this
case, however, the thermal effect of surface processes Qw varies from a negative value on
carbon burning C + O2 = CO2 to a positive value upon its sublimation. An extra liberation of
heat upon burning brings about surface overheating relative to the equilibrium value of the
temperature for a heat-insulated wall. In this case, the effective enthalpy becomes negative and
the notion of heff loses practical sense. The dimensional rate of destruction is often used as an
alternative parameter for generalizing the experimental and the design data:

Its advantage is that the function (he ) is always positive and besides, the temperature of
the destructing surface Twand the emissivity are not warranted. Typical dependences
of on the stagnation enthalpy he for Teflon, glass-reinforced plastic and graphite breaking
down in air flow are shown in Figure 7.

Figure 3. The share of gasification as a function of stagnation enthalpy of incoming gas he.

Figure 4.

Figure 5.

Figure 6.

Figure 7. Dimensionless destruction rate ( ) as a function of stagnation enthalpy (he) for
various materials breaking down in an air flow.
Combined radiation-convection heating of the surface of an ablative material can considerably
change the mechanism of its destruction. The injection of gaseous disintegration products in
cases where they do not possess high absorption coefficients, slightly reduces the intensity of
the radiation component of the heat flow. As the ratio grows, the mechanism of
destruction of the majority of ablative materials more closely resembles sublimation and
thermal decomposition. This is due to a rapid decrease in the contribution of convective and
diffusion transfer in the boundary layer while injecting gaseous products, to the ceasing of
melt film flow and to the absence of burning on the destructing surface.
The heat balance on the surface of an ablative material in case of high levels of radiation of heat
flows is simplified as follows:

Here, K, w is the absorption coefficient, which depends on the spectrum of incident radiation
heat flow () and on the spectral distribution of the destructing surface emissivity ():

When no mechanical cracking or melting of a heat-shielding material occurs, the total rate of
ablation coincides with and the notion of effective enthalpy of the material under
intensive radiation heat influence can be introduced as:

Table 1 shows the results of the evaluation of parameters h, K, w (in the 0.2 < < 1 m spectral
range) and hR for various substances.
Table 1.
Material h, kJ/kg K
, w
h
R
, kJ/kg
Graphite 30.000 0.85 35.000
Quartz 15.000 0.2 75.000
Magnesium oxide 15.000 0.13 115.000
Teflon 3.000 0.1 30.000
An analysis of the data presented in Table 1 allows us to reach a paradoxical conclusion: under
the influence of intensive radiation, the effective enthalpies of destruction of graphite and
Teflon become about equal. We should note that the ablation rate of graphite, as compared to
magnesium oxide, does not differ so strongly as the other values of the effective enthalpies
given in the table. This is associated with the fact that the temperature of graphite destruction
is almost half as great, and, therefore, the levels of the reemitted energy differ by an
order of magnitude. Nonetheless, the main conclusion that can be drawn in
analyzing Table 1 is that by decreasing the absorption coefficient of the destructing surface (K,
w), we can obtain a greater efficiency of ablation than by increasing the heat of sublimation.