Surface Oxidation of Carbon/Carbon Composites in Hypersonic Environments

When a carbon-carbon heatshield is exposed to atomic oxygen in a high temperature environment the surface experiences ablation primarily through oxidation. this oxidation process ejects new species into the boundary layer and may affect the heat flux to the surface of the vehicle. We explore the effects that surface oxidation chemistry has on heat flux. A surface chemistry solver is implemented into KATS-CFD. The implementation is tested against a two-reaction model. The Muri oxidation model is applied in a test to observe the level of influence varying surface site concentration has on heat flux results. In addition, We look at how surface pressure also has an influence on the reaction rates inpart due to the surface mass balancing