University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
The Grainger College of Engineering
Applied Research Institute

Defense University Research Instrumentation Program Award

12/1/2022

Pamela Bedient, ARI

 

Panda 3D metal printer

 

The goal of this project is to enhance the study of fluid-thermal-structural interactions (FTSI) in supersonic/hypersonic flows by incorporating complex material/structural systems into current experimental efforts via additive manufacturing. 

ARI has been working with the Air Force Research Lab and extensive work has been performed using panels similar to the one shown in Fig. 1, where a thin section is machined out of a block of solid material. During wind-tunnel testing, this thin section will deform into high-speed flow promoting FTSI, the identification of which is key for the design of future high speed air vehicles. Using these basic panel designs, a vast amount of empirical data examining FTSI has been used to test the ability of coupled modeling in the prediction of FTSI.

<em>Figure 1: Current panels with Internal instrumentation (Riley 2021)</em>
Figure 1: Current panels with Internal instrumentation (Riley 2021)

 

<em>Figure 2: a) Panel buckled into flow due to heating inducing a shock, b) Local change in panel shape due to buckling and modification of shock structure (Riley 2021)</em>
Figure 2: a) Panel buckled into flow due to heating inducing a shock, b) Local change in panel shape due to buckling and modification of shock structure (Riley 2021)

 

The next step in advancing the design of future high speed air vehicles is to incorporate novel structural techniques for further exploration. Additively manufactured structures afford an expansion of the design of these panels to include pre-deformed thin panels, novel support structures (https://matlack.mechanical.illinois.edu/), the seeding of failure, potential cooling channels for control of thermal boundary conditions, and expansion of material type with customized microstructure (https://publish.illinois.edu/charpagne/) or oxide dispersion strengthened alloys (https://technology.nasa.gov/patent/LEW-TOPS-151 .

Sources:

  • Riley, Z.B., Hagen, B., and Ehrhardt, D.A., “Aero-optical Measurements of the Response of a Thin Panel at Mach 6,” American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Journal (submitted)
  • Brouwer, K.R., Perez, R.A., Beberniss, T.J., Spottswood, S.M., and Ehrhardt, D.A., “Experiments on a Thin Panel Excited by Turbulent Flow and Shock/Boundary Layer Interactions,” American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Journal 2021. DOI: 10.2514/1.J060114
  • Brouwer, K.R., Perez, R.A., Beberniss, T.J., Spottswood, S.M, Ehrhardt, D.A., and Wiebe, R., “Investigation of aeroelastic instabilities for a thin panel in turbulent flow,” Nonlinear Dynamics 2021. DOI: 10.1007/s11071-021-06571-4
  • Riley, Z.B., Perez, R.A., and Ehrhardt, D.A., “Response of a Thin Panel to Aerothermal Loading at Mach 6,” American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Journal 2021. DOI: 10.2514/1.J060404
  • Beberniss, T.J., and Ehrhardt, D.A., “Visible Light Refraction Effects on High-speed Stereo Digital Image Correlation Measurement of a Thin Panel in Mach 2 Flow,” Experimental Techniques 2021. DOI: 10.1007/s40799-020-00408-2