Analysis on thermal control approach for a bare shaft of rudder in a hypersonic vehicle

• Published in: Applied thermal engineering Vol. 137; pp. 487 - 493
• Main Authors: Li, Fangyong, Yang, Chunxin, Zhang, Xingjuan, Wang, Chao
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford Elsevier Ltd 05.06.2018; Elsevier BV
• Subjects: Active control; Aerodynamic heating; Aerodynamics; Carbon dioxide; Combined thermal control approach; Convection heating; Copper; Copper plating; Cylinders; Electronic equipment; Forced convection; Fuel consumption; Gasification; Heat engines; Hypersonic; Hypersonic vehicles; Insulation; Local super high heat flux; Plating; Thermal management; Local super high heat flux; Combined thermal control approach; Hypersonic
• ISSN: 1359-4311; 1873-5606
• DOI: 10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2018.03.084

•A combined thermal control approach for preventing serious aerodynamic heating is proposed.•The thermal control effect of the proposed method is simulated and analyzed.•The engineering practicability is evaluated by a mass penalty method. A 5 mm-wide gap of a shaft connected to the rudder in a hypersonic vehicle is exposed without any heat insulation bearing serious aerodynamic heating. A new thermal control approach combining CO2 flow forced convection in the central inner channel with copper-plating on the outer surface is proposed to prevent the temperature of the gap from exceeding the material’s highest tolerance temperature. Based on the integrated thermal management, CO2 first cools the electronic equipment after being gasified from a high-pressure cylinder, and then moves into the shaft for active thermal control. The thermal control performance is simulated, and the results show the proposed method could satisfy with the thermal control requirements, however, the thermal control requirements could not be fulfilled if the forced CO2 flow convection or the copper-plating was used alone. The mass penalty was estimated within a weight of 11 kg which is quite feasible for engineering applications.