Abstract
At present, silicone rubber-based ablative composites are usually enhanced by carbon fibers (CFs) to protect the case of solid rocket motors (SRMs). However, the effect of the CFs’ length on the microstructure and ablation properties of the silicone rubber-based ablative composites has been ignored. In this work, different lengths of CFs were introduced into silicone rubber-based ablative composites to explore the effect of fiber length, and ceramic layers of various morphologies were constructed after ablation. It was found that a complete and continuous skeleton in ceramic layers was formed by CFs over 3 mm in length. In addition, the oxyacetylene ablation results showed that the linear ablation rate declined from 0.233 to 0.089 mm/s, and the maximum back-face temperature decreased from 117.7 to 107.9 °C as the length of the CFs increased from 0.5 to 3 mm. This can be attributed to the fact that successive skeletons concatenated and consolidated the ceramic fillers as well as residues to form an integrated, robust, and dense ceramic layer.
Highlights
Solid rocket motors (SRMs) are mainly used as propulsion for launch vehicles owing to their stability, reliability, and, especially, high transmitter mobility [1,2,3,4]
During the operation of solid rocket motors (SRMs), high-temperature and high-speed heat flux with particles is produced in the combustion chamber, which may lead to the destruction of the combustion chamber case, resulting from complex ablation including thermochemical corrosion, particle concussion, gas shear, and external pressure [5,6,7,8]
Silicone rubber is suitable as a matrix for thermal protection materials (TPMs)
Summary
Solid rocket motors (SRMs) are mainly used as propulsion for launch vehicles owing to their stability, reliability, and, especially, high transmitter mobility [1,2,3,4]. To keep the motor running, the thermal protection materials (TPMs) are positioned between the propellant grain and the case, which can resist ablation and buffer the generated stress and strain [6,9]. Due to the backbone consisting of only –Si–O– bonds, silicone rubber possesses good thermal stability, favorable flexibility, and low thermal conductivity [10,11], and it can form pyrolysis products in an ablative environment that resist high-temperature and oxidizing gases [12]. Silicone rubber is suitable as a matrix for TPMs
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
