Bloodhound team turn to F1 for cooling solution

The jet-and-rocket powered car is due to make its first test runs in a matter of months and tight packaging within the design means that heat soak is a constant concern.

One of the more unusual facets of Bloodhound is the rocket motor’s fuel pump, which is driven by a 550bhp supercharged Jaguar V8. This sits next to the tank of high-test peroxide (HTP) used to feed the rocket. The consequences of putting too much heat into this 1,000-litre container of highly volatile rocket fuel are potentially explosive, so temperature control is a major issue.

To reduce heat transfer, the V8’s exhaust pipes were coated using Zircotec’s ThermoHold material. This was applied using a plasma spray technique, where an electrically generated plasma is used to heat particles of a zirconia-based material to extremely high temperatures (circa 10,000°C), before it’s shot towards the surface at around twice the speed of sound.

The concept itself isn’t new, but more recently Zircotec has developed a technique for applying the same material to composite surfaces.