Integrated Thermal Protection System Design for Hypersonic Vehicle Based on New Thermal–Mechanical Method

With the development of hypersonic vehicles, considerable attention has been paid to thermal protection systems (TPSs). Among the different types of TPS, integrated TPS (ITPS) has attracted extensive interest because of its light weight, cost effectiveness, bearing capacity, and easy maintenance. However, ITPS, with its complex structure and reusable requirement, is facing challenges and it is worth devoting much effort to this. In an effort to overcome these challenges, we develop a novel approximate analytical method based on separation of variables and orthogonal expansion technique, which is presented for the prediction of heat transfer. The approximate analytical method has the ability to consider the effects of temperature-dependent thermal material properties, convection and radiation. Moreover, a C0 higher-order layer-wise finite-element model combined with homogenization techniques and a simplified three-dimensional (3D) finite-element model based on the periodic structure characteristic are proposed to estimate the thermal–mechanical response and stability of ITPS effectively. In addition, an optimization procedure based on the proposed methods for ITPS is developed. Implementation of the optimization is demonstrated by applying it to design the ITPS of space shuttles and hypersonic vehicles. By comparing with conventional thermal protection systems (CTPSs), ITPS exhibits an outstanding advantage in weight and an acceptable disadvantage in size. The objective of this paper is to establish an accurate and efficient design method aiming at determination of the optimal performance of ITPS, and puts forward the foundation for the development of a hypersonic vehicle.