Design and evaluation of a conical hypersonic vehicle with an overturned aerodynamic layout

Abstract

A conical hypersonic vehicle with an overturned aerodynamic layout was accomplished and its aerodynamic performances were evaluated. In this work, the aerodynamic design methodology was addressed firstly, and then the conical vehicle integrated with an overturned inlet was obtained. The mass flow capture performance and the total pressure recovery performance were evaluated under design and off-design conditions. Results show that the mass flow capture increases and the total pressure recovery decreases as the inflow Mach number increases. The total pressure recovery decreases when the inflow Mach number increases. After that, the self-starting performance of the inlet was obtained by simulating an accelerating process. The initial inlet self-starts at Mach 5.2 on attack angle 6∘ situation. Furthermore, an improvement of the inlet self-starting performance was achieved with keeping the designed mass flow capture almost constant. By altering the 3-D shape of the inlet leading edge, the inlet self-starting Mach number decreases from Mach 5.2 to Mach 4.6 on attack angle 6∘ situation.