Reduced-Order Aero-thermoelastic Modeling of Air-Breathing Hypersonic Vehicles

Active Aeroelasticity and Structures Research Laboratory//Aerothermoelastic Modeling and Simulation/Reduced-Order Aero-thermoelastic Modeling of Air-Breathing Hypersonic Vehicles

Student : Nate Falkiewicz

Sponsor : Michigan/AFRL Collaborative Center in Control Sciences

Summary:

Hypersonic vehicle design and simulation require an interdisciplinary approach due to complex physics and coupling between aerodynamics, aerodynamic heating, heat transfer, elastic airframe, flight control, and propulsion. The focus of this project is the investigation of the effect of aerodynamic heating on the vehicles structural dynamics and aero-elastic response. Due to the low-order form required for control system design, reduced-order models are utilized within the aero-thermoelastic framework. The major contributions to date are:

  • Investigated the use of proper orthogonal decomposition for reduced-order thermal solution with arbitrary time-dependent boundary conditions
  • Developed aerothermoelastic simulation framework with reduced-order aerothermal, heat transfer, and structural dynamic models
  • Applied framework to hypersonic vehicle control surface and assessed impact of aero-thermo-elasticity on transient lift, drag, and necessary control input
Bottom surface heat flux at 6 degrees angle-of-attack.
Spatial distribution of temperature under transient aerodynamic heating.
Structural deformations under unsteady aerodynamic and thermal loads.
Spatial distribution of temperature under transient aerodynamic heating.
Flowchart of reduced-order aerothermoelastic simulation framework as applied to control surface.

Control surface displacements at Mach 8, 3° angle of attack from 0 – 200 s under unsteady aerodynamic and thermal loads.