Low density ablative materials modified by nanoparticles addition: Manufacturing and characterization
Ablative materials represent a traditional approach to thermal protection adopted to protect re-entry space vehicles from the severe heating encountered during hypersonic flight through planet or Earth atmosphere. In this paper low density carbon-phenolic ablative materials were modified with addition of ZrO2 nanoparticles with the aim of improving the mechanical properties and the ablation resistance. It is known that an uneven distribution of nano-reinforcement could be responsible for a drastic limitation of potential beneficial effects.