Design-Oriented Thermostructural Analysis with Internal and External Radiation, Part 1: Steady State

This paper presents a steady-state sensitivity analysis formulation covering configuration shape and structural sizing design variables for coupled linear structural analysis and nonlinear thermal analysis including the effects of radiation: in external and internal cavities. A new coupled design-oriented thermoelastic analysis capability is first presented and validated by using an available commercial analysis code. It is then used to calculate shape sensitivities and assess a number of standard approximation techniques in an effort to gain insight regarding the functional relations between design variables and thermoelastic responses. A novel approximation scheme is presented for the category of problems discussed that lead to substantial savings in central processing unit time. A hypersonic wing structure similar to a space shuttle wing is used as a test case.