Ablation Behavior of Ballistic Missile Warhead Coated with Carbon/Carbon Composites in Atmospheric Reentry

The ablation behavior of the ballistic missile warhead coated with carbon/carbon composites layers in atmospheric reentry was empirically approximated, mathematically modeled, theoretically calculated in RankineHugoniot relations, and experimentally measured in the lab-built Reentry Ablation Simulation Platform.The impact of the atmospheric reentry conditions on the microstructures and ablation of the C/C coated warhead was investigated with scanning electron microscopy.The results show that both the thermo-chemical ablation and mechanical erosion of particles significantly affected the ablation.To be specific, the linear ablation rates at the stationary point and on the conical surface were 0.0615 and 0.0402 mm/s, respectively.In addition, the ablation rules of the C/C composites coated on the warhead under different atmospheric reentryconditions were derived; and the total ablated mass of the C/C coatings was evaluated to be 8.6 kg based on the experimental results.