Air plasma ablation/erosion test for 4D C/C composites used in the throat of solid rocket motor

Abstract

A small-scale plasma ablation facility was employed to test the four-directional carbon/carbon (4D C/C) composites under high enthalpy multi-phase jet condition for ablation/erosion performance evaluation with the ablation flow field studied via computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The various ablation rates, ablation behavior and microstructure of the C/C specimens were investigated. The overall mass ablation rate was 0.05715 g·s−1 with 0.05550 mm·s−1and 0.01794 mm·s−1 axial linear ablation rate of inner and outer walls. In the radial direction, the linear ablation rates were 0.07794 and 0.00517 mm·s−1 for the inner and external diameter respectively. Ablation changes the inner wall of the annular specimen into an inverted horn shape, while the edge near the jet becomes rounded corners after the plasma procedure. The interface between the axial carbon rod and the matrix has visible ring fractures. Alumina particles are lodged in cracks and holes as a result of multiphase flow scouring. The regression rate of the composites can be considerably accelerated by particle erosion and the existence of inherent defects. The specimen ablation of top surface and inner wall is attributed to the coupling of the heterogeneous reaction and multiphase erosion. On the back wall of specimen, the regression is mainly caused by thermochemical ablation.