Some characteristics of the ablation of decomposing materials

The authors examine a most simple model of mass transfer from the heated surface of a condensed phase in the presence of chemical reactions. It is shown that decomposition of the molecules of starting substance and subsequent vaporization (or sublimation) of the decomposition products have an important influence on this process and lead to the appearance of a number of new effects not observed in the ablation of nondecomposing materials. The principal conclusions of the theory are confirmed qualitatively by the experimental data, on the degradation of certain polymers in a high-enthalpy gas jet described in the concluding section of the paper.The authors thank G. I. Barenblatt for his interest in their work.