Structural-aerothermal optimisation of hybrid thermal protection systems for hypersonic combustors

A hypersonic aircraft’s engine wall must survive searing heat while also cooling itself with its own fuel. This project tackles a fundamental engineering problem: how to keep the combustion chamber walls of a hypersonic vehicle from melting or cracking under extreme temperatures and pressures. Current cooling systems are either passive (insulating tiles) or active (pumping coolant through channels). This research combines both approaches into a hybrid system called Passive Active Regenerative Cooling (PARC), where the fuel itself flows through the wall structure to absorb heat before being burned. The challenge is that hydrogen fuel, while an excellent coolant, can embrittle the metal it passes through. The researchers will use computer simulations—coupling fluid dynamics, heat transfer, and structural mechanics—to predict how these walls deform, creep, and crack over time. They will also model how hydrogen diffuses into the metal and weakens it. If successful, this work could enable the design of reusable hypersonic vehicles—for defence, space access, or ultra-fast travel—by providing engineers with validated tools to predict when a cooling system will fail, and how to prevent it. The immediate impact is on design methodology, not on a consumer product.