DESIGN OF SUPERSONIC INLETS

This FORTRAN IV computer program which incorporates the method of characteristics was written to assist in the design of supersonic inlets. There were two objectives: (1) to study a greater variety of supersonic inlet configurations and (2) to reduce the time required for trial-and-error procedures to arrive at optimum inlet design. The computer program was written with the intention of being able to construct a variety of inlet configurations by interchanging specific subroutines. In this manner, greater flexibility of choice was attained, and the time required to program a specific inlet configuration was greatly reduced. The second objective was accomplished by a reformulation of the boundary value problem for hyperbolic equations. By this reformulation of the boundary data, the engineering design quantities, throat Mach number and flow angle, were introduced as direct input quantities to the computer program. As a consequence of introducing the engineering parameters as input, the computer program will calculate the surface contours required to satisfy the specific throat conditions. Inviscid flow is assumed and the method used to calculate the inlet contour results in minimum distortion to the flow in the throat. This program was developed on an IBM 7094.