Problem Definition: CFRP structures are widely used in space applications and increasingly in upper stages as they provide stiff and light-weight solutions. However, their behaviour during re-entry is still not fully mastered, depending on the cases, they should demise sufficiently to avoid harmful uncontrolled large debris, or they should thermally resist the re-entry conditions for reusability, with the presence of thermal pro-tections, which will damage during re-entry as a consumable. The impact of resulting emissions on the atmosphere is still not understood and there are no tools that can predict with sufficient precision the environmental impact of composite materials in these applications.
Research Objectives:
- End-of-life impact analysis upon atmospheric re-entry of composite structures, with current materials as benchmark, and novel demisable (or not) concepts, with the aim to propose alternative solutions that reduce the potential for earth reaching debris, while minimizing the overall environmental impact (on the earth atmosphere, and overall, during the life of the launcher)
Expected Results:
- Assessing the demisability behaviour based on experimental results of simulated re-entry testing of several composite materials compositions and microstructure
- Contribution to the modelling of demisability of composites (based on thermal/mechanical behaviour)
- Chemical analysis of the degraded composites and residues
- Life cycle analysis (with focus on End of life scenarios) of the various composite solutions for the case study of a launcher
- proposition of optimised solutions, combining the required mechanical properties, structural requirements while presenting a minimal environmental impact following a practical case study proposed by AGG
Secondments:
- University of Stuttgart (US, Stuttgart, Germany, ca. 5 months): demisability analysis
- Ariane Group GmbH (AGG, Bremen, Germany, ca. 3 months): case study analysis
Main Supervisor:
Co-Supervisors:
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