Insights

Hypersonic vehicles are often exposed to extreme environments where heat fluxes to the vehicle’s surface can pose several challenges for the integrity of the shielding material. At hypersonic speeds the temperature surrounding the vessel can exceed 3000 °C and the local environment becomes partially ionized. Under these conditions oxidation effects become a significant concern. Despite the importance of understanding the role oxygen plays for materials testing, facilities capable of creating controlled oxygen plasma with sufficient plasma and material diagnostics and that can achieve sample temperatures of interest (i.e., >1800 ℃) are scarce.