NANOCOMPOSITE ROCKET ABLATIVE MATERIALS: SUBSCALE ABLATION TEST

摘要

The objective of this material development program is to develop a new class of nanostructured material that is lighter and has better erosion and insulation characteristics than current ablatives. Nanocomposite rocket ablative materials (NRAMs) exploit the ablation resistance of both the base resin and nanoparticles. Borden Chemical’s SC-1008, a resole phenolic, was selected as the base resin for this study. Several nanoparticles such as montmorillonite (MMT) nanoclays, carbon nanofibers (CNFs), and polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS®) have been evaluated with the SC-1008 phenolic resin. Wide angle X-ray diffraction (WAXD) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) were used as screening tools to determine the degree of dispersion before producing prepregs for testing. Several MX-4926 alternates were fabricated by replacing the carbon black filler with different nanoparticle loadings. A few NRAMs showed excellent erosion rate and heat-soaked temperature rise performance over the baseline MX-4926.