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he : exit height of intake Details of flow field inside air-intake are of vital importance
to estimate the performance of air-breathing engines
me : mass flow rate at intake exit operating in supersonic flight regime. At supersonic speed,
mi : mass flow rate at intake capture the air-intake is expected to compress the ingested
freestream air to a pressure level required for the engine
M : Mach number operation. The adoption of a particular intake is governed by
the requirement of mass flow and pressure by the engine.
P : static pressure Mixed compression mode is generally adopted for operation
at higher Mach numbers due to various reasons. At
PB : back pressure ratio (Pe /Pi)
supersonic speeds, the flow inside the air-intake has
PBS : sustainable back pressure ratio additional complexity due to shock wave-boundary layer
interaction and presence of mixed supersonic-subsonic flows.
Pe : intake exit static pressure The shock wave system formed inside the intake will influence
the overall efficiency. A typical sketch of the flow behaviour
Pi : free stream static pressure inside a mixed compression supersonic air-intake at design
Po : total pressure condition is represented in Figure 1, which shows the overall
complexity of flow existing inside the duct. Efficiency of the
Poe : total pressure at intake exit mixed compression air-intake is characterised by pressure
recovery, flow distortion and mass flow rate. One of the critical
Poi : free stream total pressure issue associated with mixed compression air-intake is the
unstart phenomena which could be due to the various factors,
PR : pressure recovery
that include variations in the operating conditions, viscous-
inviscid interactions, non-sustainable back pressure from
S Das and Dr J K Prasad are with the Department of Space the combustor, etc. Due to the possible flow separation in
Engineering and Rocketry, Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, intake, the flow becomes unsteady and may induce
Ranchi, Jharkhand 835 215.
oscillations in flow leading to buzz, which could be
This paper (modified) was received on October 28, 2009. Written detrimental to the performance of intake. Mixed compression
discussion on the paper will be entertained till July 31, 2010. intakes are more susceptible to the unstart phenomena in
M>1 Combustor
M>1 entry plane
Seperation Reflected
RAMP surface oblique shock
comparison to other modes of compression due to the different bleed system at various locations on hypersonic
presence of shock system and induced flow interactions intake is studied by Pandian, et al13. Shock wave-boundary
inside the duct leading to flow separation. Alleviation of unstart layer with bleed slot interaction studies were reported by
are generally done by adopting boundary layer bleed, fluid Hamed, et al14 and Kim, et al15. Use of micro ramp vortex
injection, variable geometry, isolators, vortex generators, generators to control the boundary layer which improves the
providing spillage through wall perforations, etc. Each of these inlet performance is demonstrated by Babinsky 16 .
methods has its own merits and demerits. The most common Improvement of overall performance adopting a bump in intake
method adopted to improve the starting characteristics is is recently reported by Tillotson, et al17 and Kim18. Studies
through bleeding a small percentage of air at particular made with adoption of cowl deflection angle to improve flow
locations on the intake. quality and performance of supersonic intakes has been
reported by Das and Prasad19,20.
Studies have been made by many researchers to understand
the flow behaviour inside air-intakes. Neale and Lamb1 This clearly shows that the flow control is necessary to
reported systematic experimental results on a two- improve the performance of air-intakes. Studies are reported
dimensional mixed compression intake with different shapes either with adoption of bleed or variable geometry or vortex
diffuser, variable geometry and different bleed geometries generator or bump or cowl bending. However, the studies to
with changing mass flow rates. The intake indicated starting obtain the combined effect, for example, bleed with cowl
behaviour with adoption of cowl translation and bleed. Starting bending is not reported to the best of author’s knowledge.
with characteristics of intakes at supersonic speed were
reported by Kubota, et al2 for a bent cowl with different In the present study, numerical simulations are performed
contraction ratios. Wie, et al3 performed experiments to on a typical 2D mixed compression air-intake using
study the starting behaviour of intakes with variations in cowl Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes solver for inviscid case and
height and length with emphasis on improvement of as well adopting k-ω urbulence model. Limited experiments
performance by fluid injection. Fisher, et al4 and Trapier, et have been made only with cowl bending adopting flow
al5 conducted experimental studies on supersonic inlet buzz visualisation technique and measurements of pressure.
due to unsteady unstart phenomena. Numerical study for Comparison of computed results with experiments and
hypersonic inlet start/unstart has been reported by Daren, improvement in the performance characteristics of intake
et al6. due to cowl bending, bleed and cowl bending with bleed are
presented and discussed.
Hermann, et al7 and Reinartz, et al8 have carried out the
numerical and experimental studies with different isolator GEOMETRICAL DETAILS OF INTAKE
lengths of a hypersonic inlet to improve the flow quality. Use
The air-intake adopted in the present study has similar
of conventional method of bleeding air to improve intake
geometry studied by Neale and Lamb1, which is designed
performance is reported in many literature. Numerical
for Mach number 2.2. The geometrical detail of the intake is
investigation of different bleed models for a mixed
presented in Figure 2. It consists of two external
compression inlet has been reported by Mizukami, et al9
and Vivek and Mittal10. Gawienowski11 conducted series of Cowl
θ5
experiments with different bleed slot size and mass flow
rates to assess the performance of an external compression y θ3
he
θ4
hc
28 IE(I) Journal–AS
compression ramps having angles of θ1 = 7° and θ2=14°. estimated error of measurement of freestream pressure and
The internal surface of the cowl was maintained either parallel Mach number is in the order of 0.6% and 1%, respectively.
to the freestream direction1 or had a deflection angle of θ5 =
2°, such that tip of cowl is deflected away from the centreline COMPUTATIONS
of flow up to the minimum area of the duct (intake throat). Two-dimensional numerical simulations were made to
Inside the subsonic diffuser, upper wall is parallel to the capture the flow field inside air-intake using commercial
freestream direction, whereas, the lower wall has a turning software FLUENT. The basic geometry of intake was similar
of θ3 = 2.3°, forming first diffuser followed by a second diffuser to the configuration adopted in the experiments.
having a turning of θ4 = 6° with respect to intake centreline Computations are performed using finite volume technique
which provides necessary divergence. Further downstream, to solve compressible Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes
it is followed as a constant area duct. The capture height equations. An explicit coupled solver with upwind
(hc) of intake is 15 mm and overall length (L) of the model is discretisation scheme for the convective terms and second
119 mm. For the experiments, the width of model is 15 mm order central differencing scheme for diffusion terms was
leading to aspect ratio of one. adopted. Simulations were made adopting k-ω turbulence
EXPERIMENTAL DETAILS model, which is generally recommended for computations
of complex flows involving separation and wall bounded high
The experiments were performed using the supersonic wind speed flows21. The computational domain and a typical grid
tunnel at Birla Institute of Technology, Mesra, Ranchi. It is a distribution used during the present computations is
blowdown type wind tunnel having test section size of presented in Figure 4(a). Grids were generated using
50 mm × 100 mm and Mach number ranging from 1.5 to 3. uniformly distributed quadrilateral cells with variation of
Fabrication of the intake model was done using EDM wire spacing in y-direction near the walls. A typical grid distribution
cutting machine which ensured a dimensional accuracy of showing the grid resolutions near the wall is presented in
better than 0.01 mm. The model was made in modules, ie, Figure 4(b). Typical value of y+ on the ramp surface was of
ramp body, cowl body and the sideplates. Different models the order of 30.
were made for flow visualisation and static pressure
measurement. A typical photograph of model without one of The adopted boundary conditions are also shown in
the sideplate is presented in Figure 3. To capture the flow Figure 4(a). Inlet boundary was defined by specifying
inside the intake, side plates made from Plexiglass were stagnation and static pressures corresponding to Mach
used for Schlieren flow visualisation. A suitable mixture using number 2.2. A small freestream turbulent intensity of 0.5%
Ti02, oleic acid and lubricating oil was used for obtaining the and a viscosity ratio of 5 were specified at inlet for the turbulent
surface flow pattern. Schlieren photographs and oil flow computations. Pressure outlet boundary condition was
pattern were photographed using a digital SLR camera. adopted at the bleed outlet and intake outlet. No-slip
Cowl body
Sideplate
Plug
Ramp body
(b) grids near wall
Grid sensitivity studies were made adopting different grids Intake geometry adopted in the present investigation is similar
which indicated that a typical grid (630 × 90) was sufficient to the earlier discussions1, which reports experimental
for the present computation. During the computations, the results with bleed using different bleed geometries and
various lengths of subsonic diffuser. To validate the present
3
computations, data for 2.8% bleed mass flow at freestream
Mach number of 2.2 has been used. Necessary flow
2.5 conditions were simulated and computations were made with
a specific step bleed (SB) having similar geometry and
2 location of bleed, with supercritical operation of intake, as
Mass flux
70
1.6
pressure)
60
50
40 1.4
30
20
10 1.2
0
0 500 1000 1500 2000
1.0
Iterations
0.02 0.04 0.06 0.08 0.1 0.12 0.14
(b) wall y+ on ramp surface
1e+00 Distance downstream from cowl tip, x(m)
Residual continuity Figure 6 Comparison of computed results with experiments
k
1e–01
1e–03
1e–04 Terminal
0 200 400 600 800 1000 1200 1400 1600 1800 2000 normal shock
Iterations
(c) RMS residuals Step bleed duct
30 IE(I) Journal–AS
Figure 8 Density gradient contour obtained through inviscid
computation without cowl bending
Computation for inviscid case and free exit flow made for
basic intake geometry1, indicates a start of intake as seen
(a) Schlieren with cowl bending (θ5 = 2°)
from the density gradient contour shown in Figure 8.
Experiments as well as simulations with k-ω turbulence
model on this geometry were made. Schlieren and density
gradient contour presented in Figure 9 indicates unstart of
intake observed with expulsion of the entire internal shock
system of the intake. The contraction limit of the supersonic
diffuser for the present geometry is within the limit for start
of intake given by Kantrowitz22 which is confirmed by the (b) density gradient contour using k-ω turbulence model for θ5 = 2°
results obtained through inviscid computation. However, this
intake configuration indicates unstart in both experiments
and turbulent computations, which could be attributed to
the presence of separated flow due to strong interaction
between the reflected cowl shock with the boundary layer
on ramp and generally referred as soft unstart of intake. (c) density gradient contour for bleed using k-ω turbulence model
4
Experiment cowl bending - present
Computation cowl bending - present
3
P/Pi
Schlieren
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
x/L
density gradient contour using k-ω turbulence model
Figure 11 Comparison of computed and measured pressure
Figure 9 Flow unstart without cowl bending distribution on ramp with cowl bending of 2°
5
3
4
P/Pi
P/Pi
2
3
2 1 Bleed
Cowl bending
Cowl bending with bleed
1
0
0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 (x– xcl )/hc
distribution at a location near the throat entry. Cowl bending with bleed
0.4
32 IE(I) Journal–AS
Table 1 Estimated pressure recovery and flow distortion for
free flow exit
(2)
y/he
4 0.4
2 0.2
0 0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1 0.7 0.8 0.9 1
x/L P0e/P0i
Figure 18 Pressure distribution on the ramp with pressurised
exit Figure 20 Computed total pressure distribution at the exit with
pressurised exit
Ae/At = 1.14 90
6 85
Pressure recovery, %
80
P/Pi
4
75
34 IE(I) Journal–AS
whereas, adoption of bleed with cowl bending, pressure 6. Yu Daren, J Chang, W Bao and Z Xie. ‘Optimal Classifications of
recovery increases to 87.46% indicating improvement. Hypersonic Inlet Start/Unstart’. Journal of Propulsion and Power,
vol 23, no 2, 2007, p 310.
CONCLUSION 7. C D Hermann and W W Koschel. ‘Experimental Investigation of the
Internal Compression of a Hypersonic Intake’. AIAA Paper, AIAA-2002-
Numerical simulations and experiments have been made to 4130, 2002.
capture the flow field and obtain the performance of a mixed
compression supersonic air-intake. Bending of cowl or 8. B U Reinartz, C D Herrmann, J Ballmann and W W Koschel.
‘Aerodynamic Performance Analysis of a Hypersonic Inlet Isolator using
implementation of bleed was found to be necessary for the Computation and Experiment’. Journal of Propulsion and Power, vol 19,
start of intake. With adoption of cowl bending and bleed, no 5, 2003, p 868.
augmentations in intake performance is observed for free
flow as well as pressurised exit. The experiments were 9. M Mizukami and J D Saunders. ‘Parametrics on 2D Navier-Stokes
Analysis of a Mach 2.68 Rectangular Bifurcated Mixed Compression
carried out for the case of bent cowl adopting Schlieren and Inlet’. AIAA Paper, AIAA 95-2755, 1995.
oil flow visualisations and static and total pressure
measurements. Two-dimensional computations were made 10. P Vivek and S Mittal. ‘Buzz Instability in a Mixed-Compression Air
using k-ω turbulence model available with Fluent. Intake’. Technical Notes, Journal of Propulsion and Power, vol 25,
no 3, May-June 2009, p 819.
Computational results with bleed indicated good agreement
with available experimental results. The comparison of 11. J J Gawienowski. ‘The Effect of Boundary-Layer Removal through
present experiments and computed results for bent cowl Throat Slots on the Internal Performance of a Side Inlet at Mach Numbers
show good agreement in overall flow features inside the duct of 2.0 and 2.3’. NASA Technical Memorandum, NASA TM-X-502.
and as well pressure distribution on the ramp surface. 12. J Syberg and J L Konesek. ‘Bleed System Design Technology for
However, the total pressure at exit did not show a good Supersonic Inlets’. Journal of Aircraft, vol 10, no 7, July 1973, p 407.
comparison. Details of flow field with back pressure have
13. S Pandian, J Jose, M M Patil and P Srinivasa. ‘Hypersonic Air-Intake
also been studied. Combining of bleed with cowl bending Performance Improvement through Different Bleed Systems’. ISABE-
leads to better flow characteristics near intake throat which 2001-1039, 2001.
shows an enhanced performance compared to either bleeding
air or bending the cowl alone. The results suggest that 14. A Hamed, S Shih and J J Yeuan. ‘Investigation of Shock/Turbulent
Boundary-Layer Bleed Interactions’. Journal of Propulsion and Power,
adoption of cowl bending and bleed could be utilised to vol 10, no 1, January-February 1994, p 16.
alleviate starting problems of intake and also to improve the
performance characteristics of mixed compression air-intake. 15. H D Kim, W R Hingst and D O Davis. ‘Experimental Investigation of
Crossing Shock Wave-turbulent Boundary Layer-bleed Interaction’. AIAA
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT Paper, AIAA-97-0608, 1997.
2. S Kubota, K Tani and G Masuya. ‘Aerodynamic Performances of a 19. S Das and J K Prasad. ‘Effect of Cowl Deflection Angle in a
Combined Cycle Inlet’. Journal of Propulsion and Power, vol 22, no 4, Supersonic Air-Intake’. Defence Science Journal, vol 59, no 2, March
2006, p 900. 2009, p 99.
3. D M VanWie, F T Kwok and R F Walsh. ‘Starting Characteristics of 20. S Das and J K Prasad. ‘Flow Field Investigation of a Rectangular
Supersonic Inlets’. AIAA Paper-96-2914, 1996. Supersonic Air-Intake with Cowl Bending’. Journal of Aerospace
Sciences and Technologies, vol 61, no 2, May 2009, p 312.
4. S A Fisher, M C Neale and A J Brooks. ‘On the Sub-critical Stability of
Variable Ramp Intakes at Mach Numbers Around 2’. National Gas Turbine 21. T Coratekin, J VanKeuk and J Ballmann. ‘Preliminary Investigations
Establishment Report, ARC-RM-3711, February 1970. in 2D and 3D Ramjet Inlet Design’. AIAA Paper, AIAA-99-2667, 1999.
5. S Trapier, P Duveau and S Deck. ‘Experimental Study of Supersonic 22. A Kantrowitz and C duP Donaldson. ‘Preliminary Investigation of
Inlet Buzz’. AIAA Journal, vol 44, no 10, 2006, p 2354. Supersonic Diffusers’. NACA ARC-L5D20, L-713, May 1945.