Coupled thermal, structural and vibrational analysis of a hypersonic engine for flight test

This paper describes a relatively simple and quick method for implementing aerodynamic heating models into a finite element code for non-linear transient thermal-structural and thermal-structural-vibrational analyses of a Mach 10 generic HyShot scramjet engine. The thermal-structural-vibrational response of the engine was studied for the descent trajectory from 60 to 26 km. Aerodynamic heating fluxes, as a function of spatial position and time for varying trajectory points, were implemented in the transient heat analysis. Additionally, the combined effect of varying dynamic pressure and thermal loads with altitude was considered. This aero-thermal-structural analysis capability was used to assess the temperature distribution, engine geometry distortion and yielding of the structural material due to aerodynamic heating during the descent trajectory, and for optimising the wall thickness, nose radius of leading edge, etc. of the engine intake. A structural vibration analysis was also performed following the aero-thermal-structural analysis to determine the changes in natural frequencies of the structural vibration modes that occur at the various temperatures associated with the descent trajectory. This analysis provides a unique and relatively simple design strategy for predicting and mitigating the thermal-structural-vibrational response of hypersonic engines. (C) 2006 Elsevier SAS. All rights reserved.