3D modeling of thermo-mechanical behavior of composite-made nose caps of hypersonic vehicles

In the paper, the approach to the finite element modeling of the thermoelastic behavior of the composite made structures at high time-variable thermal and mechanical loads is proposed. This approach makes it possible to perform the computer simulation without homogenization of composite laminates, which can be made of different materials and have various stacking sequences of plies. The developed approach can be applied not only to plates but also to 3D structures with conical or cylindrical surfaces and allows the detailed study of longitudinal and transverse stresses distributions in plies. The developed approach has been applied to studying the thermoelastic behavior of the hypersonic flight vehicle nose caps, the walls of which are made of different composite laminates. The computer simulation has been performed along the flight trajectory at time-variable (during the flight of the hypersonic vehicle) Mach numbers and different angles of attack. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.