Ablation

Ablation means removal of material from the surface of an object by vaporization, chipping, or other erosive processes. The term occurs in space physics associated with atmospheric reentry, in glaciology, medicine, and passive fire protection. In a basic sense, ablative material is designed to slowly burn away in a controlled manner, so that heat can be carried away from the spacecraft by the gases generated by the ablative process; while the remaining solid material insulates the craft from superheated gases. There is an entire branch of space physics research involving the search for new fireproofing materials to achieve the best ablative. In medicine, ablation is the same as removal of a part of biological tissue, usually by surgery. Surface ablation in the skin (also called resurfacing, because it induces regeneration) can be carried out by chemicals (peeling) or by lasers. Its purpose is to remove skin spots, aged skin, wrinkles, thus rejuvenating it. Surface ablation is also employed in otolaryngology for several kinds of surgery, such as for snoring. Laser ablation is greatly affected by the nature of the material and its ability to absorb energy, therefore the wavelength of the ablation laser should have a minimum absorption depth.

Further information:

1. Parker, John and C. Michael Hogan, "Techniques for Wind Tunnel assessment of Ablative Materials," NASA Ames Research Center, Technical Publication, August, 1965.
2. Chelur; Chalfie. "Targeted cell killing by reconstituted caspases". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 104: 2283.
3. Мальцев П. П., и др. «Нанотехнологии. Наноматериалы. Наносистемная техника», Москва, изд. Техносфера, 2008 г., 430 с.
4. Article Ablation from Wikipedia, the Free Enciclopedia. Available under the license Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike.

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