Continuous production of pressure resistant plastic piping

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1959
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 153 KB
• Volume: 268
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0016-0032
• DOI: 10.1016/0016-0032(59)90517-4

✦ Synopsis

Used to overcome missile re-entry problems, the ablation or melting technique dissolves the plastic nose cone coating at an even rate. Excessive heat is absorbed and the missile nose retains a pointed shape during the process.

The new plastics are favored for their superior thermal and mechanical properties. In a simulated missile reentry into the earth's atmosphere, the plastics successfully endured 15,000 F. (half again as hot as the surface of the sun) for 30 sec. This degree of tolerance to high temperatures is possible because of a heat protective mechanism known as ablation, peculiar principally to organic reinforced plastics.

Ablation is one method of using the heat generated by aerodynamic friction. The material subjected to this environment may change from a solid to a liquid or gas; change from a liquid to a gas ; undergo chemical decomposition or erode. Which of the above actions takes place depends upon the temperature and velocity of the gases.