Numerical investigation on the aerothermoelastic deformation of the hypersonic wing

Abstract

This paper numerically investigated the aerothermoelastic deformation of the hypersonic wing. An aerothermoelastic analysis framework is developed by using an in-house code and an open source code CalculiX. Aerodynamic load and aerodynamic heat are obtained by employing the in-house code to solve the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations. Structural heat transfer analysis and structural static analysis are conducted by adopting the CalculiX module based on the finite element method. The radial basis function interpolation scheme is utilized as a unified method to handle the two-way data transfer and the mesh deformation. The aerothermoelastic analysis framework is validated by several experimental cases. Based on this framework, the aerodynamic heating process, the effects of aerodynamic heating on the characteristics of deformation, and the effects of aerothermoelastic deformation on the aerodynamic performance are investigated in detail. The results indicate that the aerodynamic heating changes the characteristics of the aeroelastic torsion angle. Without aerodynamic heating, the torsion angle increases monotonously along the span direction. With aerodynamic heating, the torsion angle increases at first and then decreases along the span direction. This is mainly due to the severe aerodynamic heating at the leading edge, which causes a larger deformation at the leading edge. In addition, when the aerothermoelastic deformation is taken into consideration, the pressure at the lower surface decreases significantly, and the lift, the drag, the lift-drag ratio and the moment also decrease, especially the moment. The main reason is that the aerothermoelastic deformation reduces the effective angle of attack.