Analysis of thermal protection system in flex seal of a rocket motor

Abstract

A Thermal protection system is used to protect the rocket from the heat generated by the hot gases. A thermal boot is used as the thermal protection system at the outside of the nozzle to protect the flex seal. The objective of the present work is to design the thermal protection system for flex seal using different composite materials for single time of flight and to study the ablation of the materials. The problem is modelled using commercial ANSYS software. 3-D Axi-symmetric transient thermal analysis is performed for the flex seal along with thermal protection system made of composite materials. The initial and boundary conditions are applied to meet the industrial requirement. From this analysis, thermal protection system made of different composite materials is studied and one is suggested based on ablation and weight reduction.