Evaluation of numerical ablation model for charring composites

Charring composites are widely used in the thermal protection system (TPS) to consume the intense aerodynamic heating during vehicle reentry. The ablation and thermal responses for the charring composites can be studied by using a numerical ablation model, in which the surface ablation and volume ablation could be taken into account. The coupling interactions among temperature, gas motion and interior pressure producing the pyrolysis gas could make the computation more complicated. A multi-physics model is developed to simulate the thermal response coupled with volume ablation and surface ablation. After studying four typical ablation cases, the model is validated, and then the heat transfer mechanisms in ablation are investigated. It is found that the viscous dissipation energy by the motion of pyrolysis gas can be neglected in the simulation. Also, the flow of pyrolysis gas plays an important role in the temperature response, especially under high heat flux condition.