Abstract
The inflatable reentry vehicle provides a new technical way in aerospace entry, descent, and landing. The structural failure of inflatable reentry vehicle experiment caused by thermal aeroelastic effect is serious, which needs to be further studied. A traditional numerical method about flexible vehicles separates the aeroheating and aeroelastic problems, resulting in poor matching with the actual test. In this paper, a thermal-fluid-solid coupling model considering inflation gas effect was established, which associates the aeroheating and aeroelastic modules and adopts the LES to improve the depicting ability of hypersonic flow. The model was used to solve the thermal aeroelastic characteristics under extreme aeroheating load. From aeroheating results, the large-scale vortex on windward generated by the interaction of the shock layer and boundary layer has great influence on aeroheating due to the heat dissipation, and the skin deformation also increases the surface friction and local heating near depressions. From aeroelastic analysis, the flexible structure performs violent forced vibration induced by the unsteady large-scale vortex on windward, and the aeroheating effect will significantly increase the thermal stress and natural vibration properties. The thermal-fluid-solid coupling method for the flexible structure proposed in this paper provides a reasonable reference for engineering.
Highlights
The traditional rigid aeroshell is not competent in complex return missions due to the large volume, low payload, and inconvenient operation
The IRDT-2 and IRDT-2R launched by Russia were ablated under violent aeroheating [7, 8]; momentary structural instability appears on the inflatable reducer launched by JAXA due to the pressure difference between inflation gas and aerodynamic force
The thermal-fluid-solid coupling model proposed in this paper can present the actual physical process more effectively than the traditional method of separated aeroheating and aeroelasticity. This model is competent in describing the heat conduction and inflation gas expansion, overcoming the defect that structural deformation is not considered in existing research
Summary
The traditional rigid aeroshell is not competent in complex return missions due to the large volume, low payload, and inconvenient operation. In the past research about the IRVE system, the thermal aeroelasticity was divided into the aeroheating and aeroelastic problems based on the premise that the characteristic time of the flow field is much smaller than heat transfer [12] These two problems were usually separated to, respectively, solve the surface temperature and structural dynamics under aerodynamic loads, and International Journal of Aerospace Engineering the one-way coupling method was most widely used. The interaction between aeroheating and aeroelasticity is significant: the surface temperature and inflation gas expansion induced by aeroheating cannot be ignored in structural dynamics solution, and the large deformation effect of flexible film has notable influence on aeroheating in turn These effects have been already confirmed in some tests recently [19, 20]; the independent solutions of aeroheating and aeroelastic problems are inappropriate. The thermal aeroelastic characteristics under extreme aeroheating are investigated, and the mechanisms of external flow and inflation gas on aeroheating and structural dynamics are explored
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