Space Technologie
A. V. Lykov Institute of Heat and Mass Transfer (IHMT) of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) of Belarus is the country's largest scientific institution, involved in development of the energy-efficient and environmentally friendly technologies and equipment, apparatus, instruments and materials for various purposes, including the aerospace applications. The Institute set upon its research projects in this particular subject area by carrying out theoretical and experimental studies of heat and mass transfer in the capillary porous media, which could be further applied for development of efficient thermal shields for space vehicles. The plasma jet or the arc-jet gas heater is that specific tool for carrying out experiments in this focus area. The first coaxial plasma jet was disposed to the Institute by the Central Research Institute of Machine Building, which was then the head organization in the space and missile industry sector of the Soviet Union. Early on thereafter, the IHMT scientific staff set about the development of in-house designed plasma jets to be used for testing more sophisticated thermal protection parameters. To that end, there had been set up the laboratories, the scientific focus area of which was closely associated with development of aviation equipment and space/missile technology; also there had been tested hundreds of various composites of glass-, asbestos-reinforced plastics, organic, carbon fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon-carbon composites, graphites, metals, ceramics and other materials. The subjects of research projects included the heat-protec-
tive materials for descent manned space vehicles, «Energiya-Buran» complex and other products related to the space and aircraft equipment. Owing to Professor Aleksey Lykov’s efforts, the scientific community was benefitted with the open and first in the Soviet Union publication of «Thermal Protection», written by Y. Polezhayev and F. Yurevich who presented results of the studies carried out at IHMT. Up to present this scientific tractate serves as a reference book for scientific, engineering and technical staff involved in projects on thermal protection of missile and space products The experimental capabilities, available for the Institute allow it to carry out investigations into the processes of heating, ablation and thermal decomposition of various class materials, to study their optical, thermal-strength and thermophysical properties in a wide range of temperatures and heat flows as well as their chemical composition, ambient pressures and heating rates, to simulate natural operation conditions for thermal protection components of the thermal protection shield of aircraft and space/ missile equipment. Significant results were obtained as early as in the Soviet era in the course of conducting studies on the radiative-convective heat transfer in hypersonic flow of axisymmetric blunt-nosed bodies, when creating the new types and designs of plasma jets and solving both stationary and non-stationary heat transfer problems during interaction of plasma flows with the surfaces of ablating materials; meaningful results were also produced during investigations into kinetics
Oleg Penyaz’kov, Director, A.V.Lykov Institute of Heat and Mass Transfer, NAS of Belarus, Corresponding Member
Svetlana Danilova-Tret’yak, Academic Secretary, A.V.Lykov Institute of Heat and Mass Transfer, NAS of Belarus, Cand.Sc. (Engineering)
of multistage processes of thermal decomposition of composite materials and their thermal properties as well as the studies of performance capacity and thermal protection of the transpiration-cooled walls designed for gas-phase nuclear engine. Over the last decade the aerospace industry has been steadily moving to its forefront. The in-depth exploration of the outer space however is calling for effective models of aviation and space equipment. The present day can see IHMT being involved in projects that are contributing to solving that task. As part of the Union State Scientific and Technical Program «Nanotechnology-US» the experimental capabilities of the Laboratory of Plasma Technologies have been used for carrying out tests of the heat shield composites; also, in joint efforts with S.A Lavochkin Scientific and Production Association (Russian Federation) there have been developed and tested a new material with improved properties. The works are currently in progress with regard to experimental determination of the fracture velocity, effective enthalpy, heating of the thermal protection materials under intensive thermal loads in non-stationary and quasi-stationary conditions of subsonic and supersonic flow. The studies are being carried out on ablation of different materials under simultaneous effect of the plasma flow and Al2O3, SiO2 and other abrasive particles; the Laboratory of Thermophysical Measurements has been providing its technical facilities for studying the thermophysical properties of heat-shielding composites. Experimental verification of the thermal protection in simulated
SCIENCE AND INNOVATION
EXPLORING THE OUTLAYING SPACE
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