AE Seminar Speaker: Daniel Pickard - Understanding Thermal Protection System Failure through Simulation
- Sponsor
- Aerospace Engineering
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- 19
- Originating Calendar
- Aerospace Engineering Seminars
Abstract:
Predicting material and structural failure in hypersonic environments is necessary to enable lowcost, sustainable space access and to attain key national security objectives. Coupled modeling of oxidation, thermochemical decomposition, and mechanical failure within thermal protection systems is essential to achieving this goal. In response to this need, we present a continuum theory and large-scale simulation framework for fracturing solids with complex post-fracture thermochemical response. The framework is leveraged to elucidate fundamental failure mechanisms of both reusable and ablative thermal protection system materials.Keywords: Multiphysics; Hypersonic; Fracture;
Bio:
Daniel Pickard is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received undergraduate, masters and doctoral degrees in the same department in 2020, 2022, and 2025. His research is concerned with high-fidelity simulation of multiphysics phenomena in solid materials. With his collaborators, he develops numerical methods to advance our understanding of the physical effects of high enthalpy, hypersonic flows on reentry vehicle thermal protection systems. Dr. Pickard enjoys teaching computational mechanics and learning about new developments in related areas.