Dynamic modelling of heat transfer in thermal-acoustic fatigue tests

A control-oriented model is proposed in this paper with the capability of the rapid modelling of heat transfer dynamics during the tests of hypersonic vehicle thermal protection system. This model is especially useful in assisting thermal-acoustic fatigue tests in a heated progressive wave tube. The multi-physics field in this thermal-acoustic fatigue test facility is first decoupled based on the associated theoretical principles in heat transfer and acoustics. A control-oriented model is then built up by describing the decoupled components, inasmuch that the complicated interconnections are eventually clarified using classical control modelling methods. To verify the proposed model, the predication results for some representative case set-ups are compared to the experiments and numerical simulations, respectively. The largely good agreement suggests the potential of the proposed modelling method in terms of its prediction efficiency and effectiveness, which will enable large-scale parametric studies. In addition, the proposed model helps to clarify the complicated coupled physics of acoustic and thermal dynamic systems.