Experiments on aerothermoelastic fluid–structure interaction in hypersonic flow

Aerothermoelastic fluid–structure interaction (FSI) is a crucial problem in the design of supersonic and hypersonic vehicles, but modeling capabilities are in many cases quite limited. Insufficient treatment of FSI can limit design options or lead to damage or loss of vehicles. To improve understanding of such problems, we conducted FSI experiments with thin panels in hypersonic flow in the hypersonic wind tunnel H2K at DLR, Cologne, where both thermal and pressure-driven effects can be observed. Both cases with and without turbulent shock-wave/boundary-layer interaction (SWBLI) were considered. We obtained severe dynamic effects which led to the failure of the thinner panel. The results show a strong dependency of the dynamics of the coupled system on small temperature changes. Furthermore, we demonstrated that a large incident shock angle facilitates flutter in cases where it would not occur without incident shock. Detailed reference experiments regarding aerothermal heating, wall pressure and dynamic properties of the flow field were conducted using a rigid structure. This extends the very limited experimental data base on FSI in hypersonic flow serving as reference for modeling and preparation of new experiments.