Temperature Estimations of SiC Ablations with Several Kinds of Narrow Band-pass Filters

Abstract

When a spacecraft reenters the Earth's atmosphere, it becomes overheated by the strong shock waves generated ahead of the vehicle. To protect the vehicle from severe aerodynamic heating, one can apply a thermal protection system using a technique known as the ablation method. However, the properties and behavior of ablation remain poorly understood, necessitating further research. The present study conducts ablation experiments on silicon carbide using two kinds of narrow band-pass filters with different measuring wavelengths. During the ablation, the radiation intensity distribution was calculated from the spontaneous emission images of the test piece acquired through each filter. Based on the relationship between the radiation intensity distribution ratio and temperature, the estimated surface temperature of the test piece after 10 s of heating ranged from 1,800 K at the rear to 3,000 K at the tip.