Thermo-structural Design of Hypersonic Vehicle Sharp Leading Edges for Thermo-erosive Stability Using Finite Element Modelling

Hypersonic vehicle structural components with sharp geometries, namely, strut, cowl and nose, experience high pressure and heat flux due to flow stagnation. Besides the heat flux and pressure, high-temperature erosive environment is also experienced by such structures. Thus, evaluation of high-temperature wear becomes crucial to design of such sharp structural components. In present work, thermo-structural analysis along with evaluation of damage due to wear-induced mass loss has been carried out by using wall temperature-dependent pressure and heat flux estimated from computational fluid dynamics analysis. Critical design parameters, namely, temperature, stress and mass loss due to erosion, have been estimated considering non-linear material behaviour of ZrB₂-SiC-based ultrahigh-temperature ceramic. Multiple temperature-dependent erosion models for ZrB₂-SiC have been developed, and maximum mass loss of 74 milligrams has been estimated for ZrB₂-SiC strut subjected to heat flux of 6.08 MW/m² and 753 kPa pressure in Mach 3 flow for 300 seconds duration.