International Round-Robin High-Enthalpy Test-Facility Campaign

Advancing the understanding of high-temperature materials, such as ceramic matrix composites (CMCs), under conditions relevant to extreme thermal environments requires access to consistent and well-characterized material response data. While high-enthalpy test facilities have a longstanding history of advancing the understanding of high-temperature materials, it is well known that no singular facility can fully replicate all conditions necessary to develop a comprehensive and robust material response. Therefore, emerging from discussions on this topic during a collaborative workshop at the Third International Conference on High-Speed Vehicle Science and Technology (HiSST) held in Busan, South Korea in April 2024, a round-robin test campaign is proposed. The two-fold outcomes of the proposed test campaign are to foster international collaboration and understanding of international high-enthalpy facilities, as well as to cultivate an understanding of material degradation through testing at multiple facilities allowing dissemination to the international community through HiSST. Through this effort, a comprehensive documentation of international facility capabilities will be compiled to support informed test planning and validation within the research community. Since each of these facilities are unique, a systematic approach will be used to relate specific key-capabilities to participating contributors. In collaboration with each facility and using a common material set for testing (polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), graphite, silicon carbide (SiC), and/or ultra-high temperature CMC), the proposed campaign will document a range of material responses such as non-oxidizing and oxidizing material failure. Each facility’s “tribal” knowledge from both historic, and newly generated data, will be leveraged at varying levels of participation to foster mutual growth and understanding. The proposed individually funded test campaign is targeted to document the unique capabilities and constraints at participating high-enthalpy test facilities. It aims to provide the international community with a comprehensive understanding of both new and existing ground-based test facilities for characterizing material behavior under high-enthalpy conditions, while fostering enhanced international collaboration.