Thermal and Thermomechanical Performances of Pyramidal Core Sandwich Panels Under Aerodynamic Heating

According to the particular aerodynamic heating loads which hypersonic aerospace aircrafts suffered from in-service environment, a lightweight integrated thermal protection system (ITPS) named pyramidal core sandwich panel is designed. This is considered not only as an insulation structure but also a load-bearing structure. Compared to traditional thermal protection systems (TPSs), the sandwich panel has simultaneous lightweight, load-bearing, and excellent thermal protection property. The finite-element heat transfer analysis for the pyramidal core sandwich structure is performed, and the distributions of temperature in the structure are presented. Then sequential coupling method is adopted to analyze the thermomechanical performance of the structure and presentations of field of stress and displacement under aerodynamic and thermal load are provided. A comparison between corrugated-core sandwich panels and pyramidal core sandwich panels from the perspectives of heat insulation, strength, and mass is carried out. The results indicate that the particular performance of pyramidal-core structure is superior to that of corrugated-core structure.