A micro-channeled sample was tested using a solar facility that reproduces the conditions that the constitutive material of one thermal shield may encounter during terrestrial reentry (reduced total pressure, extreme temperatures and presence of a plasma of atomic oxygen generated by the shockwave…). The efficiency of the proposed technical solution to reduce the surface temperature of one thermal shield was validated. Applying an internal helium coolant flow made it possible to decrease the surface temperature of our Inconel 718 demonstrator from 1300 K (close to the Inconel 718 melting point) to 680 K when the gaseous flow was 30 l/min.
Funding text
The installation of the demonstrator inside MESOX facility was possible thanks to Roger Garcia from PROMES-CNRS. The solar flux distribution presented in figure 3 was achieved by Anita Haeussler from PROMES-CNRS. This research was funded through the M-ERA.NET project 2021 \u201CAM-ACTS\u201D by the Agence Nationale de la Recherche, grant number ANR-22-MER3-0001; by VINNOVA funding agency, grant number Dnr: 2018-05237, by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033, grant number PCI2022-132933; and by the European Union \u201CNextGenerationEU\u201D/PRTR.