PROCEDURES FOR THE DESIGN OF THERMAL PROTECTION SYSTEMS FOR MANEUVERABLE RE-ENTRY VEHICLES
Abstract
Atmospheric re-entry of earth-orbital, hypersonic glide vehicles creates thermal problems. The heat affects not only the materials and construction of the airframe but also the crew and various subsystems of the vehicle. Successful solution of these problems depends upon the development of an effective thermal protective concept, which will also give the designer some latitude in his design philosophy. The role of the protective system is to significantly attenuate the influx of heat that is aerodynamically generated within the surrounding boundary layer. Attenuation is accomplished by combining external radiation shielding elements with backup insulation materials and an appropriate cooling system. Analytical procedures are presented for determining significant system parameters by transforming the differential heat conduction or diffusion equation into an algebraic expression by employing the calculus of finite differences. The adaptation of the resulting equation to digital computer programming is discussed, and numerical results are presented to indicate systems of minimum weight.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 1962
- Accession Number
- AD0287957
Entities
People
- Donald Turrentine