Inviscid parametric analysis of three-dimensional inlet performance

Abstract

The advantages and design requirements of propulsion/airtranie integration for the high Mach number flight of air-breathing vehicles have led to extensive study of the three-dimensional sidevv all-compression scramjet inlet in recent years. Inlets of this genre afford a relatively simple, generic geometry while producing a highly complex, three-dimensional flowfield dominated by shock/shock and shock/boundary-layer interactions. While the importance of the viscous effects in high-speed inlet interactions is recognized, the present work addresses in a parametric fashion the inviscid effects of leading-edge sweep (between 0-70 deg) and inflow Mach number (between 2-12) on the inlet performance. Two-dimensional oblique shock theory is appropriately modified to account for the three-dimensional effects of leading-edge sweep and is applied throughout the inlet configuration to obtain inviscid shock impingement locations, mass capture, inlet compression, total pressure recovery, and kinetic energy efficiency. Comparison of these results with CFD indicates that the parametric trends are identified by this computationally quick and inexpensive method for preliminary design applications.