Study of several organic resin coatings as anti-ablation coatings for supersonic craft control actuator

Abstract

A series of heat-insulating and ablating simulation tests were carried out using oxyacetylene flame to simulate the rocket engine exhaust flame, which was aiming at seeking for solution to the overheating and erosion- and ablation-induced failure of small scientific supersonic craft actuator caused by the engine exhaust flame. Thus the flowing fields of the rocket engine exhaust flame were analyzed by means of numerical simulation. The effectiveness of various organic resin coatings and ceramic coating in preventing the ablation of the actuator was investigated based on the simulation tests, rocket engine bench test, and field trial launch test. The temperature changes of the inner wall of the coated actuator during the field launch test were monitored using a data remote-sensing system and compared to that by numerical calculation. It was found that the flowing fields of the rocket engine exhaust flame could be readily analyzed using the numerical simulation method. The phenolic resin and silicone coatings had excellent ability to prevent the actuator from overheating and ablation. Specifically, the silicone coating of a thickness about 0.5 mm was able to keep the temperature on the inner wall of the actuator during the field launch test below 70 °C and hence could be suggested as the first choice to acquire satisfactory ablation and erosion protection of the actuator.