Noel CLEMENS, James HANNAH, Abhendra SINGH

DOI Number: N/A

Conference number: HiSST-2025-161

Oxide/Oxide ceramic matrix composites (CMCs) have the potential to be used as multifunctional structures in hypersonic vehicles due to their load-bearing ability and thermal stability. However, ground-based testing is necessary to understand the material performance of candidate materials to the challenging hypersonic environments. Under hypersonic flight conditions, vehicle components may be exposed to temperatures approaching the melting point of alumina (approximately 2000°C), as well as to chemically active ionized gases. Therefore, it is necessary to understand the response of Oxide/Oxide CMCs to not just thermal loads, but also the added challenges of plasma environments in a variety of pressure states. In this research, an alumina-mullite based Oxide/Oxide CMC was exposed to various thermal plasma stream conditions intended to mimic the harsh conditions encountered in hypersonic flight. The samples were exposed for a duration of 5 minutes at heat fluxes between 80 and 100 W/ cm2. Samples were exposed at near vacuum (~3 torr) pressures at the HyMETS arc-jet facility at the NASA Langley Research Center, as well as under full atmospheric condition using the inductively coupled plasma generator located at the University of Texas at Austin. Physical degradation of the samples under atmospheric condition was more aggressive in comparison to those tested in near-vacuum environment. This also resulted in significant differences in the microstructural changes in the samples between the two environments.

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In Categories: 1.Events, 1.HiSST 2025, Materials and Structures for vehicle and all subsystems
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