The Holloman rocket sled experiences severe thermal damage at speeds over Mach 5 and operations up to Mach 10 are needed. Hence, the need for increased thermal protection against the aeroheating and temperature effects on the sled components. First, the aerothermal environments must be defined, then thermal protection materials developed and tested to withstand these environments. The Phase I part of the program developed the analytical techniques for defining the aerothermal environments, including the changes introduced by "flying" through a second gas, such as helium, during the sled run. The Phase II effort will use these analytical techniques to define the aerothermal environments in areas on the sled that experience the severe thermal damage, compile a database of materials developed for high-temperature applications, screen these materials against the computed environments, and select those which can survive for validation tests on the sled. The validation process will include fabricating sled components using the selected materials and testing them on sled runs to the desired speeds. During these tests new temperature instrumentation will be tested and measurements made to validate the analytical environment predictions. Part of the Phase III commercialization effort will be to design a new sled with the validated materials or to develop new materials, if none are validated in the Phase II.
Keywords: Aeroheating Temperature Effects Flow Code Thermal Protection Pc-Based Computer Code Conduction Code
