Effect of Side Gust on Performance of External Compression Supersonic Inlet

Abstract

This Paper reports a computational investigation on the effects of side gust on the performance of a double-cone external compression supersonic inlet at Mach 1.8. The supersonic inlet geometry comprises three zones: a supersonic zone, a transit zone, and a subsonic zone. The supersonic zone is designed numerically using the Taylor–Maccoll method, while the transit and subsonic zones are designed using a methodology from literature. A three-dimensional structured mesh is generated by using the ICEM computational fluid dynamics software. Detailed three-dimensional simulations are performed using the ANSYS Fluent 18.2 code. The grid independency tests are performed by using local grid refinements and varying the number of grid points from 2.5 to 9.5 million. Further, the Fluent code is validated by comparing predictions with those using the SUPIN and Wind-US codes. The effects of side gust on the flowfield and oblique and normal shocks are analyzed by examining the Mach number and pressure distributions in the three zones. The inlet performance is characterized in terms of total pressure loss, flow distortion, and mass flow ratio parameters for a side gust of and gust angles of 30, 60, and 90 deg. Results indicate that the inlet performance is significantly affected by the side gust, especially at small gust angles.