Active Aerothermoelastic Control of Hypersonic Double-wedge Lifting Surface

Designing re-entry space vehicles and high-speed aircraft requires special attention to the nonlinear thermoelastic and aerodynamic instability of their structural components. The thermal effects are important since temperature environment brings dramatic influences on the static and dynamic behaviors of flight structures in supersonic/hypersonic regimes and is likely to cause instability, catastrophic failure and oscillations resulting in structural failure due to fatigue. In order to understand the dynamic behaviors of these ＂hot＂ structures, a double-wedge lifting surface with combining freeplay and cubic structural nonlinearities in both plunging and pitching degrees-of-freedom operating in supersonic/hypersonic flight speed regimes has been analyzed. A third order piston theory aerodynamic is used to estimate the applied nonlinear unsteady aerodynamic loads. Also considered is the loss of torsional stiffness that may be incurred by lifting surfaces subject to axial stresses induced by aerodynamic heating. The aerodynamic heating effects are estimated based on the adiabatic wall temperature due to high speed airstreams. As a recently emerging technology, the active aerothermoelastic control is aimed at providing solutions to a large number of problems involving the aeronautical/aerospace flight vehicle structures. To prevent such damaging phenomena from occurring, an application of linear and nonlinear active control methods on both flutter boundary and post-flutter behavior has been fulfilled. In this paper, modeling issues as well as numerical simulation have been presented and pertinent conclusions outlined. It is evidenced that a serious loss of torsional stiffness may induce the dynamic instability; however active control can be used to expand the flutter boundary and convert unstable limit cycle oscillations （LCO） into the stable LCO and/or to shift the transition between these two states toward higher flight Mach numbers.

Two-Way-Coupling Method for Rapid Aerothermoelastic Analyses of Hypersonic Wings

Several types of coupling methods for resolving aerothermoelastic problems associated with hypersonic wings are summarized,and the appropriate coupling methods for engineering calculations are selected.Then,the calculation and analysis methods for the subdisciplines in this field are introduced,and the time step issue is discussed.A two-way-coupling rapid static aerothermoelastic method for analyzing hypersonic wings is proposed.This method considers thermal effects and is used to conduct an aerothermoelastic response analysis for a hypersonic wing.In addition,the aerodynamic force,heat flux,structural deformation and temperature field are obtained.The following three conclusions are drawn.First,the heating effect has a significant impact on the static aeroelastic response of hypersonic wings;therefore,thermal protection shields are essential.Second,the application of thermal protection shields reduces the differences in the calculation results between the one-and two-way-coupling methods.Third,hypersonic wings exhibit large thermal deformation under high-temperature environments,and in certain cases,the thermal deformation is even larger than the deformation caused by aerodynamic force.

Aerothermal-aeroelastic two-way coupling method for hypersonic curved panel flutter

A method to compute aerothermal-aeroelastic two-way coupling for hypersonic curved panel flutter is proposed. The aero-therrno-elastic governing equations of a simply-supported two dimensional curved panel are developed based on the von K＇arrn＇an geometrically non-linear theory. The Galerkin approach is used to simplify the equations into discrete forms, which are solved by the fourth-order Ronger-Kutta method. The third-order piston theory is applied to the aerodynamics. The Eck- ert＇s reference temperature method and the panel heat flux formula are used to compute the aerodynamic heat flux. Several important effects are included, namely 1） two-way coupling considering the effect of elastic deformation on aerodynamic heating and aerodynamic heating on stiffness of structure, 2） accumulation of the aerodynamic heating in real cruise, 3） arbitrary, non-uniform, in-plane and through-thickness temperature distributions, and 4） the effect of initial deformation of curved panel on the flight time to the onset of flutter. Compared with the results of aerothermal-aeroelastic one-way coupling, it is revealed that the two-way coupling which induces decrease of the flight time to the onset of flutter is more dangerous. In addition, importance should be attached to this method in actual analysis.

Aeroelastic stability analysis of heated panel with aerodynamic loading on both surfaces

Focusing on the aeroelastic stability of thin panel structure of airframe component such as engine nozzle of high-speed flight vehicles,a nonlinear aeroelastic model for a two-dimensional heated panel exposing both surfaces to the airflow with different aerodynamic pressures is established.The von Karman large deflection plate theory and the first-order piston theory are used in the formulation of aeroelastic motion.The critical conditions for aeroelastic stability and the stability boundaries are obtained using theoretical analysis and numerical computations,respectively.The results show that the panel is more prone to become unstable when its two surfaces are subject to aerodynamic loading simultaneously;only if the sum of the aerodynamic pressures on both surfaces of the panel satisfies flutter stability condition,can the panel be likely aeroelastically stable;compared with the general panel flutter problem that only one surface is exposed to the airflows,the present condition makes the panel become aeroelastically unstable at relatively small flight aerodynamic pressure.

A high-efficiency aerothermoelastic analysis method

In this paper,a high-efficiency aerothermoelastic analysis method based on unified hypersonic lifting surface theory is established.The method adopts a two-way coupling form that couples the structure,aerodynamic force,and aerodynamic thermo and heat conduction.The aerodynamic force is first calculated based on unified hypersonic lifting surface theory,and then the Eckert reference temperature method is used to solve the temperature field,where the transient heat conduction is solved using Fourier’s law,and the modal method is used for the aeroelastic correction.Finally,flutter is analyzed based on the p-k method.The aerothermoelastic behavior of a typical hypersonic low-aspect ratio wing is then analyzed,and the results indicate the following:(1)the combined effects of the aerodynamic load and thermal load both deform the wing,which would increase if the flexibility,size,and flight time of the hypersonic aircraft increase;(2)the effect of heat accumulation should be noted,and therefore,the trajectory parameters should be considered in the design of hypersonic flight vehicles to avoid hazardous conditions,such as flutter.

Non-linear Aerothermoelastic Modeling and Behavior of a Double-wedge Lifting Surface

The design of the re-entry space vehicles and high-speed aircraft structures requires special attention to the non-linear thermoelastic and aerodynamic instabilities.The thermal effects are important since temperature environment influences significantly the static and dynamic behaviors of flight structures in supersonic/hypersonic regimes.The dynamic behavior of a double-wedge lifting surface with combined freeplay and cubic stiffening structural nonlinearities in both plunging and pitching degrees-of-freedom(DOF) operating in supersonic/hypersonic flight speed regimes has been analyzed.In addition a third order piston theory aerodynamics(PTA) is used to evaluate the non-linear unsteady aerodynamic loads applied to the wing section.Loss of torsional stiffness that may be incurred by lifting surfaces subjected to axial stresses induced by aerodynamic heating is also considered.The aerodynamic heating effect is estimated based on the adiabatic wall temperature due to high speed airstreams.It is demonstrated that serious losses of torsional stiffness may occur in such lifting surfaces;the influence of various parameters such as flight condition,thickness ratio,freeplays and pitching stiffness nonlinearity are discussed.