2016 journal article

Fiber-optic temperature profiling for thermal protection system heat shields

OPTICAL ENGINEERING, 55(11).

By: R. Black*, J. Costa*, L. Zarnescu*, D. Hackney n, B. Moslehi* & K. Peters n

co-author countries: United States of America 🇺🇸
author keywords: thermal protection systems; thermal protection system; temperature sensing; fiber-optic sensing; fiber Bragg gratings
Source: Web Of Science
Added: August 6, 2018

To achieve better designs for spacecraft heat shields for missions requiring atmospheric aero-capture or entry/reentry, reliable thermal protection system (TPS) sensors are needed. Such sensors will provide both risk reduction and heat-shield mass minimization, which will facilitate more missions and enable increased payloads and returns. This paper discusses TPS thermal measurements provided by a temperature monitoring system involving lightweight, electromagnetic interference-immune, high-temperature resistant fiber Bragg grating (FBG) sensors with a thermal mass near that of TPS materials together with fast FBG sensor interrogation. Such fiber-optic sensing technology is highly sensitive and accurate, as well as suitable for high-volume production. Multiple sensing FBGs can be fabricated as arrays on a single fiber for simplified design and reduced cost. Experimental results are provided to demonstrate the temperature monitoring system using multisensor FBG arrays embedded in a small-size super-light ablator (SLA) coupon which was thermally loaded to temperatures in the vicinity of the SLA charring temperature. In addition, a high-temperature FBG array was fabricated and tested for 1000°C operation, and the temperature dependence considered over the full range (cryogenic to high temperature) for which silica fiber FBGs have been subjected.