MODELING OF ONE-DIMENSIONAL THERMOMECHANICAL EROSION OF HIGH-TEMPERATURE ABLATIVES

A one-dimensional material erosion model has been developed to describe the simultaneous processes of thermochemical ablation and mechanical erosion of ablatives exposed to high-temperature particle-laden flows. The model accounts for the effect of mechanical erosion due to thermochemical weakening of the material and the influence of particle impact on the thermochemical ablation. Numerical calculations of the erosion depth (i.e., surface recession) have been made for various thermal and particle loading conditions. The predicted results are found to agree reasonably well with available experimental data.