Structural Ablative Plastics

Abstract

Laminated reinforced plastics using carbon or silica fabrics and phenolic resins are widely used for ablative liners of rocket nozzles and for other applications requiring protection of structural elements in a high thermal environment. Under cyclic heating conditions, the phenolic resin chars, thereby providing ablation cooling; on cool-down, cracks and/or delaminations result in the majority of applications. On a reheat cycle, as in a multistart engine or other pulsed environment, a burn-through or other catastrophic failure may occur in the cracked areas.