Mateusz Hoffert presents research at AIAA conference

Last week, Mateusz Hoffert presented his conference paper titled “Approaching Experimental Conditions for Molecular Simulations of Phenol-Based Thermal Protection Materials” (https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2026-5025) at the 27th AIAA International Space Planes and Hypersonic Systems and Technologies Conference in Naples, Italy. Hypersonic flight and reentry requires careful thermal management and employment of Thermal Protection Materials, in particular ablative materials such as phenolic resin. A thorough study of the material response requires insights into molecular scales, typically achieved by Molecular Dynamics simulations, complemented by experiments on the macro-scale. Mr. Hoffert demonstrated the large gap persisting between experimental scales and Molecular Dynamics scales in this research area and introduced the audience to the field of Accelerated Molecular Dynamics, which promises to bridge both scales. Using this approach, Mr. Hoffert presented his achievement to extend Molecular Dynamics simulations for phenol-based thermal protection materials to the microsecond-scale by the example of pyrolysis and coking reactions. This work paves the way to a more thorough study of hypersonic material response of thermal protection materials.