Invited International Conference on Tomography of Materials & Structures

4-D MicroCT Analysis of Spacecraft Heat Shield Materials Under Atmospheric Entry Conditions (183)

Harold S Barnard 1 , Christian M Schlepütz 2 , Dilworth Y Parkinson 1 , Edward S Barnard 3 , Alastair A MacDowell 1 , Nagi N Mansour 4 , Francesco Panerai 5
  1. Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, United States
  2. Swiss Light Source, Paul Scherrer Institute, Villigen, Switzerland
  3. Molecular Foundry, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, California, United States
  4. Advanced Super Computing Division, NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California, USA
  5. Dept. of Aerospace Engineering, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Illinois, USA

We demonstrate an application of time-resolved X-ray tomography to study the oxidation of a porous carbon fiber material used in the heatshield of hypersonic spacecraft. An in-situ high-temperature setup was built to enable oxidation at controlled conditions while allowing for fast 3D microscopic imaging. It is shown that oxidation can be resolved with unprecedented details in both diffusion- and reaction-limited regimes.

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