Brecht VANHOOREWEDER, Jef VLEUGELS, Waut DECLERCQ, Sebastian MAYERS, Erin KUCI, Antoine PARMENTIER, Arnaud FRANCOIS, Manon WOUTERS, Stephane DEBAISIEUX, Sander HOLUM, Sebastien PARIS
DOI Number: N/A
Conference number: HiSST-2025-227
Design of aerospace vehicles remains a real challenge and considerable room is left for improvement. Their aero-mechanical architecture becomes very complex when considering the Thermal Protection System (TPS) along with its appropriate sizing, characteristics related to their assembly with hot structures and specific parts like noses, leading edges and control surfaces. Aerospace missions demand for hypersonic systems able to withstand not only the very severe environment but also to perform some manoeuvres and to adapt the controllability of the vehicle and its propulsion unit. This requires the presence of moving parts operating in a hot environment with suitable sealing to avoid sneak flows
or alleviating any weak point due to surface discontinuities in the aggressive high enthalpy reacting environment. Hypersonic morphing offers the advantage to integrate the functionality of the high-speed system in a continuous shape eliminating the presence of gaps or leaky passages. It avoids having weak points in the structure that could potentially be fatal for the aerospace vehicle and would favour improved performances. To investigate this morphing capability, as a conceptual solution for hypersonic system, a demonstrator
based upon a high-temperature resistant materials was proposed having the capability to modify its geometry during operation in a high enthalpy flow. The technical challenges were first to identify the specific applications for hypersonic systems most suitable for morphing capabilities, secondly, to elaborate a mechanical design of such a structure in
parallel with the material development and manufacturing. As silicon carbide ceramics are well known for their high temperature resistance and chemical stability, make them ideal candidate materials for morphing structures. However, SiC ceramics are also stiff and do not deform easily. Therefore, dedicated geometrical architectures must be developed in order to ensure that the ceramic material can be used for morphing structures. These geometrical architectures cannot be fabricated with traditional ceramic manufacturing techniques, like die pressing or injection moulding. Additive manufacturing (AM) techniques, on the other hand, do have the potential to create these complex geometries. As this exploration is carried out by numerical tools, the material and manufacturing constraints were investigated together with the practical solutions that could be obtained. A strong
interaction is therefore needed with the material developer to adjust at best the functionalities of the structure and the properties of the material. The final part is dedicated to the testing and validation of the developed structure considering its aerodynamics, thermal and mechanical behaviour. A sample is tested in “hot conditions” in a reacting plasma flow to test the material resistance and the aerothermal properties of the structure. A dedicated bench is developed for tests in the VKI-Plasmatron. It allows to apply representative surface temperature (around 10000C) on a model. An actuator can deform the model gradually whereas the deformation and the stress can be measured during the tests. Results of these experiments are then compared with numerical model for validation.