arcjetCV: Open-Source Software to Analyze Material Ablation

ArcjetCV is an open-source Python software designed to automate time-resolved measurements of heat shield material ablation and recession rates from arcjet test video footage. This new automated and accessible capability enables two-dimensional in situ recession characterization from profile video. ArcjetCV automates the video segmentation process using two primary machine-learning models: a one-dimensional (1D) Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) to infer the time window of interest and a two-dimensional CNN for image segmentation. A graphical user interface simplifies the user experience and an application programming interface allows users to call the core functions from scripts, enabling batch video processing. ArcjetCV’s capability to measure time-resolved recession the enables characterization of nonlinear processes (nonlinear recession, shrinkage, swelling, etc.), contributing to higher-fidelity validation and improved modeling of heat shield material performance. The source code associated with this paper can be found at https://github.com/magnus-haw/arcjetCV .