Windtunnel Catalyticity Evaluation for Thermoprotective Elements

22 Flexible External Insulation (FEI) Blankets of various types were subjected to a plasma aging in simulated reentry conditions in TsAGI’s VAT-104 windtunnel in the frame of 4 test campaigns on FEI characterization. Blankets were tested at top side temperature T_w =800…1200°C during 60 min each. Widespread numerical simulation of the test conditions and the model heating was performed using full Navier-Stokes equations. FEI catalyticity obtained from correlation between measured and calculated heat fluxes is K_w=1…10m/s.