Carbon Fiber Oxidation in 4D
The oxidation of carbon fibers at high temperatures is the primary degradation process in the thermal protection system of many hypersonic flight vehicles. Predicting the rate and the extent of oxidation is critical to ensure a safe and effective design. An oversized thermal protection system adds unnecessary mass, while an under-designed one risks system failure and mission loss. Resolving high-temperature material degradation due to oxidation has been a long-standing challenge in designing for re-entry flight environments. Using time-resolved in situ X-ray microtomography, the oxidation of carbon fibers at high temperatures is directly imaged, resolving the two limiting degradation regimes: diffusion- and reaction-limited. The ability to resolve material degradation in time at the sub-micron scale sheds light on the ablation phenomenon and enables predictions of material constitutive properties evolving in time, with profound implications on the ability to model the aerothermal response of heat shield materials in hostile environments.
Authors
- Harold Barnard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6932-7173)
- Bruno Dias (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2468-2769)
- Dilworth Y. Parkinson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1817-0716)
- Julian L. Davis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4109-3904)
- Francesco M. Panerai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8378-8416)
- Christian M. Schlepütz (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0485-2708)
- Alastair A. MacDowell (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7022-9255)
- Edward S. Barnard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4736-0743)
- Joseph C. Ferguson (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8608-4468)
- Benjamin M. Ringel (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0001-1679-5640)
- Federico Semeraro (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2771-8077)
- Shawn Shacterman
- Talia Benioff‐White
- Sam Schickler
- Kara Levy
Institutions
- Ames Research Center (US)
- Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US)
- University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (US)
- Paul Scherrer Institute (CH)
- Analytical Mechanics Associates (United States) (US)
- Stanford University (US)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Advanced Materials
- Published
- 2025-07-14
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.202502007
- Citations
- 4
- Primary Topic
- Gas Dynamics and Kinetic Theory
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 14.91
Funders
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- Advanced Light Source