Thin-walled structures under thermo-acoustic loadings exhibit a complex nonlinear response which results in high cycle fatigue failure. The aim of the present paper is to analyze the influences of thermal-acoustic excitations on nonlinear dynamics response, and then give the corresponding multi-axial fatigue life estimation. The nonlinear responses of a clamped aluminum plate (2024-T3) under different thermal-acoustic loadings are firstly obtained, which include the response of the plate in pre/post buckled conditions and in snap-through conditions. Then the statistical properties with different temperatures and sound pressure levels are analyzed for further research on nonlinear response dynamics. Based on the thermo-acoustic response obtained, the rain flow matrix scheme is used to determine the distribution of fatigue cycles. Then the Miner accumulative damage model is employed to predict high cycle fatigue life, combined with a non-zero mean stress model. Results show that the fatigue life of a pre-buckled plate decreases with the increase of temperature. For a post-buckled plate, as the temperature increases, the fatigue life of the plate undergoing persistent snap-through keeps decreasing to the lowest point, and then increases after entering an intermittent snap-through regime.

Thin-walled structures exhibit complex nonlinear response under thermo-acoustic loadings. Complex stress-strain states decrease the fatigue life of structures seriously. Based on the thermo-acoustic response obtained, the rain flow cycle counting scheme is used to calculate the number of fatigue cycles. Then the Miner accumulative damage model is employed to predict high cycle fatigue life, combined with various nonzero mean stress models, including Morrow TFS, SWT. The nonlinear response and fatigue life of 2024-T3 aluminum plate are obtained under different combinations of thermo-acoustic loadings. Results show that the fatigue life of pre-buckled plate decreases with the increase of temperature. For post-buckled plate, as the temperature increases, the fatigue life of plate undergoing persistent snap-through keeps going down till the lowest, and then increases after entering intermittent snap-through regime. At high temperatures, the influence of high temperature on the S-N curve must be considered, the results may be erroneous otherwise.

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Abstract. Future flight vehicle structures will encounter severe loading conditions, a combination of aerodynamic, thermal, acoustic and mechanical loads. Although the analysis methods for responses of structures under acoustic loads have been developed to some extent, but with thermal loads considered, the responses show fundamental differences, which complicate the analysis immensely. It was reported that hypersonic flight may give rise to surface temperature as high as o 3000 F and intense noise whose overall sound pressure level (OSPL) may reach 180dB. Thin-walled structures subjected to such loadings will exhibit nonlinear responses. Large temperature increments may cause thermal buckling, large thermal deflections and large thermal stresses superimposed on dynamic stresses, coupled with changes in material properties. Both the geometry change by thermal buckling and stiffness change by thermal stress account for the changes of natural frequencies and mode shapes. When the acoustic loading increases to a high enough level, the post-buckled structures will exhibit snap-through motion, a large amplitude nonlinear vibration between different equilibrium positions, which will introduce extra large mean stress. As a result, thermo-acoustic fatigue may be caused, which will reduce the structure's fatigue life dramatically. Therefore it is an urgent need to estimate the influences of thermal loads on the nonlinear response of structures.A numerical investigation of the influences of thermal loads on the dynamic response of thin-walled structure under thermo-acoustic loadings is implemented. With clamped-clamped thin flat plate selected, the response characteristics related to temperature are investigated by changing thermal loads. The thermal load is considered as constant both on the surface and across the thickness. The acoustic load is simulated using stationary Gaussian white noise. Firstly, a thermal buckling analysis is proceeded to obtain critical buckling temperatures, followed by modal analysis under different thermal loads. The pre-buckled and post-buckled mode frequencies and shapes are obtained. Then three types of snap-though motions are predicted: i) vibration around one post-buckled equilibrium position, ii) intermittent snap-through, and iii) persistent snap-through.The relations between thermal loads and the occurrence of snap-though is obtained together with results about the statistics characteristic of dynamic response and their relations with thermal loads, which include critical thermal buckling loads, natural frequencies and mode shapes, RMS response and snap-through frequency. Good agreements have been achieved with previous analytical solutions, which demonstrate the effectiveness and reliability of the method employed.

Thin-walled structures of future hypersonic flight vehicles will encounter complex loadings and exhibit obvious nonlinear responses. The thermal loads from high speed flow or engine jet flow can cause thermal buckling of thin-walled structures, such as Thermal Protection System (TPS). If the structures are loaded with intense acoustic loads simultaneously, large deflection nonlinear response, including snap-through, can be induced. Snap-through will give rise to large amplitude stress cycles and non-zero mean stress, which can lessen the fatigue life markedly. Starting from Hooker’s Law with thermal components, the large deflection governing equations of motion for simply-supported plate under thermo-acoustic loadings are derived. The partial differential equation (PDE) of motion which is difficult to solve is then transformed with Galerkin’s method to the system of ordinary differential equations (ODE) under modal coordinates. The displacement responses under different combinations of temperature increments and sound pressure levels are calculated by employing Runge-Kutta method. Typical thermo-acoustic responses are predicted: 1) random vibration around pre-buckled equilibrium position, 2) persistent snap-through between post-buckled positions, 3) intermittent snap-through, 4) vibration around one of the two post-buckled positions. By dividing the restoring force term in the equation into linear term and nonlinear one, the evolutions of each term are obtained to illustrate the mechanism of thermo-acoustic response and the contributions of each force, including shear force, thermal force and membrane force. Thus a further insight into thermo-acoustic response has been achieved.