Manufacturing, thermochemical characterization and ablative performance evaluation of carbon-phenolic ablative material with nano-Al2O3 addition

Abstract Carbon-phenolic ablative materials represent the most effective solution as thermal shield for a broad kind of space missions which require a ballistic reentry in atmosphere. These materials were successfully employed for shielding probes during the reentry from the Moon and landing on Mars. Nowadays further improvements are required and the addition of nano-fillers is a promising innovation strategy. In this work a carbon-phenolic ablative material with a density of 0.5 g/cm3 was manufactured with and without the addition of nano-Al2O3. Its thermo-chemical behavior was evaluated with thermogravimetric analysis and kinetic parameters were calculated according to Ozawa, Friedman and Kissinger methods. The differences in ablation performance were enlightened by oxyacetylene flame tests. The conducted analyses show that nano-Al2O3 can modify the chemical behavior of the ablative material and can improve the ablative performance.