The Thermal Protection System (TPS) used on space shuttles protects the metallic structure from the large amounts of heat created during travel through the atmosphere, both on takeoff and reentry. The shuttle experiences high thermo-acoustic loading and impact damage from micrometeorites, which can cause disbonds, delaminations, chips, cracks, and other defects to the TPS system. To enhance durability and damage tolerance, new TPS tiles with an added protective ceramicmatrix- composite layer are being developed. This work shows that pulsed thermography can be used for the analysis of impact and thermal damage in next generation TPS tiles. The impact damage sites showed up quickly, and clearly for both types of impacts, those that pierced the CMC wrap and those that did not pierce the CMC wrap. The analysis of the thermally damaged CMC wrapped tile clearly showed the location of the disbond on the side of the tile, some edge discontinuities, and some interesting overlap effects. The delamination on the top of the thermally damaged CMC wrapped tile could also be confirmed using pulsed thermography. The sliver discontinuities could be caused by processing inconsistencies or emissivity effects and need further analysis. Additional tests are planned to address emissivity questions, and destructive sectioning will be considered to further characterize all of the indications identified.
Thermal characterization of TPS tiles
Thermische Charakterisierung von Wärmedämmkacheln
2006
8 Seiten, 11 Bilder, 8 Quellen
Aufsatz (Konferenz)
Datenträger
Englisch
NTRS | 1984
|Ground Testing of Active Thermal Tiles
AIAA | 2015
|Ultrasonic characterization of the thermal protection tiles for the space shuttle
Tema Archiv | 1980
|