Recombination of atomic oxygen on α-Al2O3 at high temperature under air microwave-induced plasma

New ceramic materials are necessary for the design of primary heat shields for future reusable space vehicles re-entering atmospheric planet. During the re-entry phase on earth, one of the most important phenomena occurring on the heat shield is the recombination of atomic species and among them atomic oxygen. The recombination of atomic oxygen is catalyzed by the material of the heat shield. This paper presents some experimental results for the recombination coefficient gamma and the thermal flux of recombination transferred to the material in the surface-catalyzed recombination of oxygen atoms based on experiments performed on the MESOX set-up using optical emission spectroscopy, actinometry and calorimetry techniques. Experimental results on the recombination coefficient are presented for three types of alpha-Al2O3 in the temperature range 900-2400 K for 300 Pa total air pressure. The thermal flux of recombination is given for only two representative samples. These three alumina differ essentially by their content of sintering additives. Different behaviors of the recombination coefficient versus temperature are observed according to the impurity level of the alpha-alumina. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.