Improving the ablation performance of largely deformed silicone rubber-based composites under coupled mechanical-thermal-oxidative conditions by implementing deformable carbon fiber fabrics

Silicone rubber-based composites are used as thermal protection materials due to their large deformability and excellent thermal insulation properties. In this study, two types of commercially available silicone rubbers were selected as the matrices for preparing flexible thermal protection materials. The influence of applied strain rates on the microstructure, ablation and ceramifiable behavior of silicone rubbers was studied. The research showed that the ablation performance of silicone rubbers deteriorated greatly at large strain rates. The reinforcement using deformable carbon fiber fabrics was proposed to effectively counter the deterioration of the ablative properties incurred by applying external strain. The back-face temperature reached as low as 186 °C when the samples were ablated at above 1000 °C for 50s at a strain rate of 20 %. The proposed strategy was proved helpful in developing high performance flexible thermal protection systems that exhibit promising application in the fields of aerospace and fire protection among others.