CERAMIC SYSTEMS FOR MISSILE STRUCTURAL APPLICATIONS

The research program conducted during the contract year is described. Report is abbreviated to provide broad interpretation of program. Specific details of completed investigations offering improvements in the state-of-the-art are to be presented in Special Technical Reports. Three such reports prepared concurrently with this report are available from the Defense Documentation Center, and the respective titles are 'Composite Thermal Protection Systems,' 'Characterization of Commercial Fused Silica Slips,' and 'Guidelines for the Establishment of Optimal Heat-Treatment Process Parameters for Slip-Cast Fused Silica Components.' Areas of study included embedded ablator concept for thermal protection systems, characterization of commercially available fused silica slips, time-temperature-thickness relationships for sintering of SCFS hardware, determination of the influence of grinding on the particle distribution, time-temperature-cristobalite behavior and physical properties of pure fused silica, and fabrication of SCFS radome structures and attachments for thermal evaluation in the General Dynamics/Pomona Ordnance Aerophysics Laboratory Typhon Combustor. (Author)