Behavior of TA6V Alloy at High Temperature in Air Plasma Conditions: Part 2—Thermal Diffusivity and Emissivity

The titanium alloy TA6V is one of the most important materials used in spacecraft particularly for the fuel tank. In order to mitigate debris in the Low-Earth Orbit and to avoid dramatic collisions on Earth after atmospheric reentry at its end of life, the spacecraft mission has to take into account the influence of reentry on the spacecraft survivability. In this way, a previous paper was dedicated to the oxidation behavior of TA6V in air plasma conditions. In this second paper, the thermal diffusivity was measured from RT up to 1370 K and compared to data from the literature. The emissivity of samples as-received (virgin), pre-oxidized in air plasma and oxidized in situ in standard air was also measured from 1000 K up to 1800 K as no data can be found in the literature. Experimental results obtained for TA6V at high temperature and low-pressure air conditions together with microstructural characterization using SEM, XRD and 3D profilometry are presented. Some results of modeling for the demisability of spacecraft are given for a TA6V piece showing the importance of the emissivity data.