Novel In-situ Ablation and Thermal Sensing Technology

Abstract

The objective of this project is to design and fabricate an in-situ ablation sensor based on photonic technology and in-situ thermal sensor based on ultra small thermocouples. The following three approaches are considered:

• Utilize commercially available optical fibers for ablation sensor; utilize commercially available ultra small thermocouples for thermal sensor; try to combine the two types of sensors to obtain additional experimental data;
• Utilize industry standard carbon/carbon composite and integrate with the proposed sensing techniques for proof of concept;
• Utilize well-controlled labscale test to check out these sensors.

Success of the proposed effort will lead to an affordable and scalable approach to make TPS material systems with in-situ ablation and thermal sensing capabilities for potential DoD and NASA applications. These techniques and manufacturing processes are potentially easy to scale-up and low cost due to utilizing commercially available materials and partnering with TPS material manufacturer.