Experimental research on thermal insulation performance of lightweight ceramic material in oxidation environment up to 1700 °C

Because hypersonic vehicles face environments with extremely high temperatures in which the vehicles׳ outer shells experience single-sided heating and the temperature varies nonlinearly over time, a self-designed radiation and one-sided heating test apparatus is established in this paper, which can perform the thermal insulation performance test for lightweight ceramic thermal protection materials of hypersonic aircraft in extremely high-temperature/oxidation environments up to 1700 °C. Meanwhile, experimental research on thermal insulation performance of a lightweight ceramic material specimen and a novel ceramic-nanomaterial hybrid structure in high-temperature/oxidation environments up to 1700 °C was carried out. Different materials alone and in combination were analyzed and compared to select the most effective insulation scheme. It is found that the thermal insulation performance of the ceramic-nanomaterial hybrid thermal protection structure can be increased approximately 50% compared with that of the lightweight ceramic material specimen. Additionally, non-linear time-varying thermal environments with extremely high temperatures were generated and the thermal insulation performance tests were performed in this paper. The present work provides an important test method for the thermal protection design of hypersonic aircraft through the establishment and application of an extreme high-temperature/oxidation test system which can create one-sided heating, time-varying thermal environments.