Hypersonic Materials Selection and Integration Tools

ABSTRACT:Advancements in propulsion systems, aerodynamics, and flight control capabilities are enabling hypersonic vehicles to operate at high speeds and altitudes. Therefore, significant new demands are placed on the materials used for constructing a hypersonic system due to the harsh environment created by the high speeds. An integrated design approach that considers the design, the processing, and the selection of the materials simultaneously with the overall design of the vehicle will link the material properties selection to the overall performance of a hypersonic vehicle and constitute a major new enabling technology. In this project the ICMSE modeling and simulation approaches will be investigated and the material selection will be integrated with the decision support environment which is offered by the DS Toolkit. The DS Toolkit offers the ability to determine how the performance metrics and the operational requirements change when the design of the vehicle varies. The DS Toolkit has been employed in the past for hypersonic vehicle design. The new developments will be employed for conducting the material selection, the trajectory analysis, and the thermal protection system (TPS) design simultaneously for a hypersonic vehicle. Thus, the tight integration of the material selection with the overall design process will be demonstrated.BENEFIT:Integrating material selection with product design is of interest to the shipbuilding, automotive, aircraft, space, military ground vehicle, and energy Industry sectors. The common factors among these Industries are: all use multi-physics simulation models for assessing the performance of their products during design; designing materials for cost effectiveness, ease of manufacturing, and enhanced properties is an essential part in new product development; they all have needs for reducing weight and creating fuel efficient systems; they all have multiple and mutual competing performance requirements. In addition, the energy Industry and any powertrain application have similar needs with hypersonic vehicles for materials that exhibit good mechanical properties at high temperatures. Thus, significant benefits will be offered in many Industries by the technology which will be developed by the proposed project.