Mechanics of Composite Thin-Walled Shells under High Temperatures

Abstract

Composite thin-walled shell structures are widely used now in design of high-speed air-space vehicles (ASVs) moving in dense layers of the atmosphere, for example, re-entry vehicles descending from the Earth’s orbit. The typical aerospace composite structure is a three-layer shell (Figure 12.1): the external layer is a thermal-protective composite material based on thermostable resins (phenol, silicon-organic); the middle layer is a low-density thermoinsulative material, and the internal layer is a high strength composite material with epoxy, polyimide etc. resin base. These structures are much more effective than metallic ones. The behaviour of thin-walled composite structures under mechanical actions and normal temperatures (20–150 °C) has been well investigated (for example [3, 120, 121]). The behaviour of thin-walled composite structures under high temperatures, when there is ablation of composite materials, has specific features.