Enhanced Transpiration Cooling for Aerospace Systems: A Comparative Study of Sintered Wire Mesh Vs. Sintered Powder Materials

Transpiration cooling has emerged as a promising method to enhance thermal protection systems (TPS) for high-speed reentry vehicles, offering adaptable heat management in extreme aerodynamic heating environments. This study investigates the cooling performance of two porous media configurations—sintered SS316L powder and sintered SS316L wire mesh—under varying Reynolds numbers. Experimental tests were conducted to measure cooling effectiveness, carefully monitoring temperature distributions and flow characteristics. The results indicate that increasing the Reynolds number improves cooling effectiveness in both materials; however, the sintered powder consistently achieves higher and more uniform effectiveness due to its more isotropic pore structure. In contrast, the wire mesh, though robust, exhibits a more anisotropic pore network and demonstrates comparatively lower peak effectiveness. These findings contribute to the growing knowledge on porous media selection and design, guiding the development of efficient transpiration-cooled TPS components. This study provides insight into material-dependent performance trends that can inform the optimization of advanced thermal management solutions for next-generation hypersonic and space-entry vehicles.