Re-entry Aerothermal Environment Simulation of the TPS of Hypersonic Flight Vehicles

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The thermal performance, structural integrity, reusability and aerodynamic stability are important parameters of hypersonic flight vehicles. A simulation test for the re-entry aerothermal environment is required to verify the thermal protection system (TPS). The TPS is exposed to an aggressive aerothermal environment during the atmospheric re-entry of hypersonic flight vehicles, especially because temperature of the hot-structure control surface can reach more than 1800 °C. This paper describes an approach to simulate the aerothermal environment of the actual flight trajectory by testing in a ground-based facility, including a test setup, aerodynamic heating calculation, heater layout design, thermal boundary conditions control and temperature measurement methods. The simulation results meet the desired temperature distribution on the TPS during re-entry. The effectiveness analysis of test conditions and instrumentation is also discussed in this paper. The study will be significant for TPS materials and structure design of hypersonic flight vehicles.