Prediction of erosion characteristics of polyimide with different defect shape pairs based on Monte Carlo method

Abstract

Under the influence of complex environmental factors such as Atomic oxygen (AO), ultraviolet radiation, and thermal cycling in low earth orbit (LEO), operating efficiency and service life will be reduced for spacecraft. This article modified the Monte Carlo binary chains list retrieval method and adopted a so-called cell array retrieval mode to consider the reaction process, which greatly decrease the number of computing nodes and increases computing speed. Based on this method, the erosion process of Polyimide materials with different defect widths, protective layer thicknesses and defect morphologies under the impact of different AO fluxes is simulated, and the erosion morphology (including depth and width) is quantitatively analyzed. The results of this work provide theoretical support for the failure criterion of materials under AO erosion.