Numerical investigation of zoned closed-loop control of nose-cone transpiration cooling under dynamic thermal loads

Nose-cone transpiration cooling under dynamic thermal loads is prone to local temperature overshoot and uneven coolant distribution. To address these issues, a zoned fuzzy proportional–integral–derivative (PID) closed-loop control method is developed using a coupled internal–external flow model. The nose cone is divided into coolant-supply zones by the natural breaks method, and the coolant flow rate in each zone is dynamically regulated by fuzzy PID control. The method is evaluated under variations in Mach number, flight altitude, and angle of attack. Results show that, at the same total coolant consumption, five-zone coolant supply reduces the stagnation-point temperature and wall-temperature standard deviation by up to 3.389% and 20.414%, respectively. Under step disturbances, zoned fuzzy PID control reduces the maximum temperature overshoot by up to 7.43 percentage points, shortens the peak-response time by 182 ms, and decreases the mean absolute error and wall-temperature standard deviation by up to 48.74 K and 20.97 K, respectively. Similar regulation performance is maintained under sinusoidal disturbances. Mechanistic analysis indicates that wall-temperature regulation is governed primarily by the thermal inertia of the porous wall. Zoning shortens the along-wall coolant redistribution timescale, while feedback enhances wall-normal coolant penetration in high-heat-load regions, thereby improving the spatiotemporal matching between coolant supply and dynamic thermal loads.