Experiments on Aerothermal Supersonic Fluid-Structure Interaction

Abstract

Mastering aerothermal fluid-structure interaction (FSI) is crucial for the efficient and reliable design of future (reusable) launch vehicles. However, capabilities in this area are still quite limited. To address this issue, a multidisciplinary experimental and numerical study of such problems was conducted within SFB TRR 40. Our work during the last funding period was focused on studying the effects of moderate and high thermal loads. This paper provides an overview of our experiments on FSI including structural dynamics and thermal effects for configurations in two different flow regimes. The first setup was designed to study the combined effects of thermal and pressure loads. We investigated a range of conditions including shock-wave/boundary-layer interaction (SWBLI) with various incident shock angles leading to, in some cases, large flow separation with high amplitude temperature dependent panel oscillations. The respective aerothermal loads were studied in detail using a rigid reference panel. The second setup allowed us to study the effects of severe heating leading to plastic deformation of the structure. We obtained severe localized heating resulting in partly plastic deformations of more than 12 times the panel thickness. Furthermore, the effects of repeated load cycles were studied.