A Novel Approach to Develop, Characterize, and Modeling of Ablative Thermal Protection Systems

Joseph Koo

Scientist

UT Austin

Dr. Koo possesses 50 years of industrial and academic experience in program and engineering management. Currently, he is Research Professor and Director of Polymer Nanocomposites Technology Lab in the Walker Department of Mechanical Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX. He is the founder of KAI and currently served as Vice President and CTO. Dr. Koo is Fellow of SAMPE, IAAM, & VEBLEO. He is an Associate Fellow of AIAA and past chair of the AIAA Materials Technical Committee. He serves as associate editor and advisory board member of several international journals and societies. He specializes in polymer nanocomposites: processing, characterization, and applications, such as ablatives for thermal protection systems (TPS) and solid rocket motors (SRM), additive manufacturing of TPS, flame retardant polymers for additive manufacturing, fire resistant nonwoven and woven fabrics, thermally conductive polymer matrix composites, sensors and photogrammetry to measure in situ ablation recession/thermal properties, sensors to measure char strength, modeling of polymer degradation, material response ablation modeling, 3D microstructures characterization & analysis, and CFD flow field modeling. Dr. Koo’s publications include four textbooks and over 700 papers/presentations in materials, thermal and optical science disciplines. A new book, “Ablation Science and Technology” published by Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, UK is forthcoming in late 2025.