3308 Preliminary study on a SiC/SiC composite elevon for a re-entry vehicle

Abstract

Hot-structures of high temperature composites are a well known key technology of light weight thermal protection system of a future space vehicle. Preliminary study on a hot structure elevon made of a SiC/SiC composite has been made for two years. A baseline model is HOPE-X elevon. Thermal and mechanical analyses were carried out using a commercial finite element analysis code. It has been understood that the disadvantage of SiC/SiC composite is its high coefficient of thermal expansion as compared with C/C and C/SiC composites, because thermal stress is dominant during re-entry.