<title>Radiometric probe design for the measurement of heat flux within a solid rocket motor nozzle</title>

Assessment of the Performance of Ablative Insulators Under Realistic Solid Rocket Motor Operating Conditions

“…While the temperature distribution within an ablator is the critical determinant of decomposition, the temperature distribution is itself dependent on both the magnitude and the mode of heating incident on its surface [49]; therefore, understanding the degradation behavior of an ablator in a SRM environment begins with knowledge of the wall heat flux. Instrumenting an SRM to measure heat flux or any other flow-field parameter, is difficult due to its harsh environment, which will quickly destroy many standard devices [53]. The necessity of such measurements to the understanding of ablative material response in SRMs, however, has led to several attempts to measure their wall heat flux.…”