Applying the Combined Integral Method to One-Dimensional Ablation

摘要

Ablation is the process whereby mass is removed from an object by vaporization or other similar erosive processes. Perhaps the classic example involves the burning up of meteorites or heat shields on space vehicles. On space vehicles the exposed surface of the ablative material is designed to burn off and the resultant gases will carry much of the heat away, while the remaining material acts as an insulator. The process may therefore be considered as a one-phase Stefan problem. Ablation also occurs in other branches of physics, for example in the melting or sublimation of a solid or laser drilling in metals and the cornea, see [7, 13].