Fiber optic temperature profiling for thermal protection heat shields

Abstract

Reliable Thermal Protection System (TPS) sensors are needed to achieve better designs for spacecraft (probe) heatshields for missions requiring atmospheric aero-capture or entry/reentry. In particular, they will allow both reduced risk and heat-shield mass minimization, which will facilitate more missions and allow increased payloads and returns. For thermal measurements, Intelligent Fiber Optic Systems Corporation (IFOS) is providing a temperature monitoring system involving innovative lightweight, EMI-immune, high-temperature resistant Fiber Bragg Grating (FBG) sensors with a thermal mass near that of TPS materials together with fast FBG sensor interrogation. The IFOS fiber optic sensing technology is highly sensitive and accurate. It is also low-cost and lends itself to high-volume production. Multiple sensing FBGs can be fabricated as arrays on a single fiber for simplified design and reduced cost. In this paper, we provide experimental results to demonstrate the temperature monitoring system using multi-sensor FBG arrays embedded in 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.