Experimental study of different control methods for hypersonic air inlets

Abstract

An experimental study of different control methods for hypersonic air inlets aimed at ensuring reliable starting of these apparatuses and improving their operating characteristics in the range of Mach numbers 2 to 8 is reported. Conditions for boundary-layer separation and possibilities for preventing this separation by using modified diffuser configurations and/or perforation bleedage are examined. An air-inlet model was tested for operation in an intermittent wind tunnel and in a blow-down wind tunnel respectively in the Mach-number ranges 2 to 6 and 5 to 8. Distributions of static and total air pressures on the walls of the model and in several cross sections were measured, together with air flow coefficients and total-pressure recovery coefficients. Perforation bleedage is shown to offer an efficient means to facilitate air-inlet starting. Perforation bleed has enabled a more than two-fold increase in the air flow coefficient on the model with sidewalls. A perforation-bleed panel installed closer to the air-inlet throat proved to be more efficient. The possibility of sudden starting of the air-inlet apparatus was checked in the intermittent wind tunnel; it was shown that, here, sudden starting could be realized. The data obtained in the intermittent wind tunnel proved to be consistent with data obtained in the blow-down wind tunnel with up to 150-ms blowdown time.