High temperature and pressure reactive flows through porous media

Large heat load are encountered in hypersonic and space flight applications due to the high vehicle speed (over Mach 5, i.e. 5000 km h−1) and to the combustion heat release. If passive and ablative protections are a way to ensure the thermal management, the active cooling is probably the most efficient way to enable the structures withstanding of such large heat load. In some conditions, transpiration cooling will be used. In this paper, the permeation of fuels and other fluids through porous media is studied up to 1150 K and 60 bars. A dedicated experimental bench has been established to ensure the monitoring of temperature, pressure, mass flow rate and chemical composition (Gas Chromatograph, Mass Spectrometer, Infra Red spectrometer) in stationary and transient conditions. The tests on metallic and composite samples have been conducted with N2, CH4, H2 + CH4 mixtures and synthetic fuels (n-C12H26). The pressure losses comparison with the mass flow rate has enabled the determination depending on the temperature of the Darcian permeability, KD the linear contribution, and of the Forchheimer’s term, KF the quadratic one. The fuel pyrolysis in such low Reynolds flow has been investigated. The blockage effect due to coking activity has been estimated.