Design and thermal protection performance analysis of insulated wing storage box for hypersonic variable-sweep aircraft

Abstract

Abstract Utilizing variable-sweep wing technology can further enhance the flight performance of hypersonic aircraft in a wide range of high-altitude, high-speed environments. Existing research on hypersonic variable-sweep flying wings has mainly focused on aerodynamic shape design, with limited research on the internal thermal protection of the aircraft. This study firstly investigates the performance improvement of a hypersonic flying wing using variable-sweep technology through CFD simulations. Secondly, to address the high-temperature issues induced by variable-sweep wings, an insulated wing storage box with a corrugated structure is designed, incorporating a thermal insulation layer made of corrugated webs and insulating materials. Heat transfer simulations are conducted by applying thermal loads to the wing storage box to study the temperature distribution during the variable-sweep process. Finally, a comparison between the corrugated structure design and the non-corrugated structure design of the wing storage box is performed to analyze the thermal insulation performance of the insulation layer. The results show that the heated area of the wing storage box is primarily influenced by the wing’s sweep angle, and the corrugated thermal insulation layer can effectively reduce heat transfer efficiency, resulting in a 30% reduction in the external temperature of the wing storage box.