Highly Affordable Net- and Near-Net Forming of Fully Dense TaC for Boost Nozzle Applications

Future aluminized propellant boost missile systems for DoD and MDA applications will create extremely severe conditions (temperature, pressure and particle impingement) in the nozzle region that will prevent conventional nozzle materials and designs to achieve the performance levels and costs that are being targeted for next-generation solid rocket motor (SRM) boost systems. The demonstration of zero or near-zero erosion in the throat area is a much sought after goal for SRM propulsion systems, since it offers direct payoff potential in the way of increased motor performance, reduced nozzle weight and lowered cost relative to current-generation of high performance rocket motors. For this Phase 1 SBIR effort, the materials system we propose for examination are based on high strength, net-formed, tantalum carbide (TaxC1-x) compositions and variants thereof; these ultrahigh temperature compounds will be fabricated by novel isostatic densification methods we have developed over the past few years. Due its extremely high melting point and predicted stability against aluminized propellant exposure, we anticipate that such TaC-based compositions will be able to withstand 3000 - 3500°C propellant flame temperatures. The principal markets that would benefit from the availability of such ultrahigh temperature materials are in the MDA and DoD boost nozzle realm.