Experimental study on the thermal-vibration testing of the wing structure of high-speed vehicles

During long time and high speed flight, high-speed aircraft structures, such as the wings and rudders, bear not only prolonged serious vibration, but also harsh aerodynamic heating. The high temperatures caused by aerodynamic heating can significantly change the mechanical properties of the materials and structures, including the elastic modulus, stiffness, and so on. Meanwhile, the complex flight maneuver process will also produce high-temperature gradients, which affect the thermal stress field of the structures. Both of these impacts significantly affect the natural vibration characteristics of the high-speed aircraft. In this paper, the wing structure vibration characteristics were investigated in high temperature environments. A self-designed extension configuration withstanding high temperature was used to transfer the vibration signals to the non-high temperature zone for vibration data acquisition by using the regular acceleration sensors. Combined this novel method and the self-developed thermal-vibration test system, the thermalvibration joint testing was performed on the wing structure of high-speed flight vehicles under a thermal environment with the highest temperature up to 600 °C and the vibration characteristics of the wing structure (e.g., the natural frequency) at various temperatures were obtained. The experimental results can provide a reliable basis for the safety design of the wing structure of high speed vehicles under high-speed thermal vibration conditions.