Thermal protection effect of heat-pipe-cooled thermal protection structures with embedded high thermal conductivity C/C materials

Heat-pipe-cooled thermal protection is an effective thermal protection method with embedded high heat transfer capacity materials or structures. A numerical model of a heat-pipe-cooled thermal protection structure with an embedded high thermal conduc-tivity C/C material was proposed in the present paper. Contact thermal resistance was tested between the high thermal conductivity C/C material and the heat-resisting three-dimensional braid C/C material. The effects of several key parameters on the thermal protection results were also numerically investigated. The results show that it is an effective method to decrease the stagnation temperature by reducing the thickness of the heat-resisting material, but the resulting strength problem should also be taken into account. Interface contact thermal resistance has a significant influence on the thermal protection effect, and in order to achieve effective thermal protection the interface contact thermal resistance should be lowered through fabrication processing.