Domestic Blended Yarn Solution for 3D Woven Ablative TPS

NASA has previously developed its 3D-TPS conceptnbsp;which offers superior mass efficiency relative to legacy carbon-phenolic TPS.nbsp; Multiple 3D-TPS recipes developed to date includenbsp;a spun carbon:phenolic yarn constituent.nbsp; Future recipes may require alternate yarn constructionsnbsp;(denier, blend ratios, fiber chemistries, etc.) in order to tailor TPS properties to specific mission requirements.nbsp; Stretch-breaking and subsequent processing ofnbsp;carbon based yarn blends is technically challenging and domestic based sources for such expertise are extremely limited.nbsp; T.E.A.M., Inc. proposes to address these issues by using our newly minted yarn fabrication facility to develop and characterize a carbon-phenolic yarn solution.nbsp; Baseline machine settings for currentnbsp;carbon yarn blend recipes being developed for the Army will be used as a starting point. nbsp;A significant portion of Phase I focus will be on quantitative characterization of yarn properties at each step of the process (tensile strength, blend quality, denier, twist level.) nbsp;This will establish baseline properties and characterization techniques to be used for further iterations anticipated in Phase II. nbsp;In addition to quantitative characterization, TEAMrsquo;s knowledge of 3D-TPS weaving with the legacy carbon:Kynol solution will be leveraged to evaluate overall ldquo;qualityrdquo; and ldquo;weaveabilityrdquo; of the yarn that is developed.