Experimental study on mechanical behaviors of Al-alloys under transient aerodynamic heating

Determination of mechanical parameters such as the ultimate strength of aerospace materials under the condition of transient heating is critical for reliability evaluation, fatigue life prediction and safety design of high-speed aircrafts including missiles. Al-alloys are widely used as aeronautical materials due to their advantages such as light weight, easy manufacturability and relatively low cost. However, their mechanical properties under transient thermal conditions are not available in the handbooks on material strength, mainly due to the difficulty of simulating the transient thermal conditions for thermal strength test. To solve this problem, a joint thermal–mechanical loading system has been developed in the present investigation to simulate the aerodynamic thermal conditions. The mechanical behaviors of some Al-alloys have been examined with this system. The ultimate strengths and durations of two different types of Al-alloys, i.e. Al7178 and Al2024, under joint thermal–mechanical loading conditions have been tested. Furthermore, their different failure modes and mechanisms under various temperatures have been investigated and compared. These data provide a reliable basis for the study of load bearing capacity and weight reduction of aerospace materials and structures under transient aerodynamic thermal conditions.