Technological principles of reducing the cycle time and improving the manufacturing safety of the thermal protection system for spacecraft reentry

The development of manned space flights is impossible without reliable protection of spacecraft and crew. The fundamentals of TPS technologies for reentry spacecraft (RSC) are discussed, and the necessity of multiple TPS impregnation is proved. A technical approach for estimating the cycle time of TPS impregnation by a binder is presented. Relationships are deduced to calculate the impregnation time taking into account the porosity of the woven phenol-formaldehyde filler, binder viscosity, the pressure drop at the inlet and outlet paths, and the effective diameter of the filler fibers. It is shown that the time of each subsequent impregnation changes exponentially. The two most important problems to be solved include the problem of reducing the impregnation time and the problem of ensuring fire safety during drying the preformed material containing alcohol in a complex autoclave. Innovative ways to reduce the impregnation cycle time and improve the technological process safety are proposed. The results of study prove that: 1) the modification of a binder by carbon nanotubes can cause a significant reduction in viscosity and, consequently, decrease the TPS impregnation time; 2) the use of the autoclave equipment makes it possible to combine several operations at one workplace and provide drying, pressing, and heating operations without oxygen, which completely eliminates the risk of fires.

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