A Nonequilibrium Thermal Model for Rapid Heating and Pyrolysis of Organic Composites

Abstract

A nonequilibrium thermal model is developed to predict the through-thickness transient temperature variation in organic composites subjected to intensive heating. In addition to heat conduction, the model incorporates four important mechanisms: rate-dependent pyrolysis, pyrolysis by-product outgassing, irradiance-dependent convection heat loss, and radiation heat lose. Both the shape of the gas flow channel and the gas addition velocity from the channel wall are evaluated based on the decomposition reaction rate. The through-thickness temperature transients, the continually changing gas channel, and the pressure distribution in the decomposition gas are obtained and discussed.