Material Response Modeling of MMOD Cavities

There is an increasing need to predictively model failure modes for thermal protection systems (TPS) driven by high mission reliability requirements as well as increasingly complex or extreme planetary entries. One potential failure mode could arise from TPS damage resultant from a micro-meteoroid or orbital debris strike. This work focuses on modeling fluid dynamics and material response of a FiberForm test article with cavities in a high enthalpy flow environment. Specifically, an arc-jet experiment in the Aerodynamic Heating Facility (AHF) is taken as a baseline simulation upon which a parametric study is built. The study investigates the thermal response of the material under various cavity geometric configurations with two focuses: cavity depth and cavity shape. The influence of these parameters on the bondline temperature is assessed.