Collected Works of H. S. Tsien (1938-1956)

Similarity Laws for Stressing Heated Wings

H.S. Tsien*

(California Institute of Technology)

Summary

It will be shown that the differential equations for a heated plate with large temperature gradient and for a similar plate at constant temperature can be made the same by a proper modification of the thickness and the loading for the isothermal plate. This fact leads to the result that the stresses in the heated plate can be calculated from measured strains on the unheated plate by a series of relations, called the “similarity laws.” The application of this analog theory to solid wings under aerodynamic heating is discussed in detail. The loading on the unheated analog wing is, however, complicated and involves the novel concept of feedback ...