Thermomechanical coupling analysis of heat-pipe-cooled leading edge thermal protection structure with thermal contact resistance

Using heat-pipe-cooled thermal protection structure is a noval efficient thermal protection method, and thermal contact resistance between the heat pipe and high temperature composite material has a significant influence on the thermal protection performances. The computational model of the heat pipe cooled thermal protection structure is given firstly, then the computational scheme of the thermomechanical coupling problem caused by thermal contact resistance is established based on the sequential coupled method. The thermomechanical coupling analysis of the computational model under different initial gaps is performed after that, with an emphasize on the effect of thermal contact resistance. Results show that using initial gap can greatly reduce the stress level of the structure, while increase the interface thermal contact resistance and stagnation temperature. Structure strength and temperature should be considered simultaneously with the thermal contact resistance in structure safety evaluation of structures with initial gaps. (C) 2011 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of Kunming University of Science and Technology