Micro-tomography based analysis of thermal conductivity, diffusivity and oxidation behavior of rigid and flexible fibrous insulators

•High quality micro-tomography of fibrous insulators are provided.•Micro-CT images enable computations of transport and thermal properties.•Challenges on micro-CT based computations of effective properties are discussed.•Pore-filling gas conductivity strongly affects the effective material conductivity.•A faster recession is predicted for flexible felt compared to rigid carbon preform. Material properties and oxidation behavior of low-density felts used as substrates for conformal carbon/phenolic ablators were compared with those of a rigid carbon fiber preform used to manufacture heritage lightweight ablators. Synchrotron X-ray micro-tomography measurements were performed to characterize the materials’ microstructure at the scale of the fibers. Using the tomography voxels as computational grids, tortuosity in the continuum regime, and room temperature conductivity were computed. Micro-scale simulations of the oxidation of carbon fibers were carried out using a random walk model for oxygen diffusion and a sticking probability law to model surface reactions. The study shows that, due to a higher porosity and lower connectivity, the felt materials have lower thermal conductivity but a faster recession rate than that of the rigid preform. Challenges associated with computations based on micro-tomography are also discussed.