Modeling Composite Material Response to Severe Thermal Environments

Physical Sciences Inc. (PSI) proposes to develop an analytical model to predict the effects of short duration heating on the thermal, mechanical and electrical properties of composite materials. Verification of the model will be accomplished by employing a high power continuous wave laser as a heating simulation method and applying our existing 1-D laser effects thermal response code to model material response phenomena. During the Phase I program we will model and measure the thermal response of candidate high performance radome materials in the transient heating regime at heating rates expected in proposed hypersonic missile flight profiles. Measurement methods for mechanical and electrical properties of composites will be designed. BENEFITS: Fabricating materials that can withstand the severe heating levels experienced by radomes in hypersonic flight is a difficult task. In order to succeed, a low cost method for testing and evaluating candidate materials is essential. The proposed methods will permit real time evaluation of material response at desired heat fluxes and time scales, building models of the material response and accompanying property changes, and learning how to utilize materials at their performance limits. Successful development of the proposed material evaluation methods will support other DoD and NASA needs for severe thermal environment high performance materials.