Experimental and computational investigations of thermal modal parameters for a plate-structure under 1200 °C high temperature environment

• Thermal-vibration test system for hypersonic aircraft structure was established.
• Dynamic parameters of a plate structure under 1200 °C were experimentally obtained.
• The experimental results favorably coincide with the numerical results.
• The creditability and availability of proposed test method were verified.
• An important thermal-vibration test technique for hypersonic aircraft is provided.

When a hypersonic aircraft flies at a high Mach number, the plate-like attitude control structures, such as the wings and rudders, will be exposed to an extremely high-temperature environment. To obtain the thermal modal parameters of a structure that are difficult to measure, a high-temperature transient heating test system and a vibration test system were combined to establish a test system that can perform the thermal/vibration test at 1200 °C. Infrared radiation heating was employed to generate a controlled time-varying high-temperature environment, and an exciter was used to exert vibration excitation on the free end of the cantilever rectangular plate. A self-developed extension configuration of a high-temperature-resistant ceramic pole was used to transfer the vibration signals of the structure to a non-high temperature zone, and the acceleration sensors were applied to identify the vibration signals. The test data were analyzed using a time-frequency joint analysis technique, and next, the key vibration characteristic parameters of structure in a thermal-vibration coupled environment up to 1200 °C (e.g., the modal frequency and modal vibration shape) were experimentally obtained. In addition, the numerical simulation on the thermal modal characteristics of a rectangular plate was performed. The calculated results coincide favorably with the test results, verifying the credibility and effectiveness of the experimental methods. The research results can provide an important basis for the dynamic performance analysis and safety design of structure under high-temperature thermal-vibration conditions for hypersonic flight vehicles.