Mach 10 Computational Study of a Three-Dimensional Scramjet Inlet Flow Field

SummaryThe present work documents the computationalresults for a combined computational and experimentalparametric study of the internal aerodynamics of ageneric three-dimensional sidewall-compression scram-jet inlet configuration at Mach 10. The complete studywas designed to demonstrate the utility of computationalfluid dynamics (CFD) as a design tool in hypersonic inletflow fields, to provide a detailed account of the natureand structure of the internal flow interactions, and to pro-vide a comprehensive surface property and flow fielddatabase to determine the effects of contraction ratio(CR), cowl position, and Reynolds number (Re) on theperformance of a hypersonic scramjet inlet configura-tion. The work proceeded in several phases: the initialinviscid assessment of the internal shock wave structure,the preliminary computational parametric study, the cou-pling of the optimized configuration with the physicallimitations of the facility, the wind tunnel blockageassessment, and the computational and experimentalparametric study of the final configuration. The compu-tational work was used to drive the design of the experi-mental configuration; the experimental data were thenused to validate the computations.The three-dimensional Navier-Stokes codeSCRAMIN was chosen for the computational portion ofthe study because it uses a well-known and well-provennumerical scheme and has shown favorable comparisonwith experiment at Mach numbers between 2 and 6. Oneadvantage of CFD was that it provided flow field data fora detailed examination of the internal flow characteristicsin addition to the surface properties. The experimentaltest matrix at Mach 10 included three geometric contrac-tion ratios (3, 5, and9), three Reynolds numbers(0.55 × 106 per foot, 1.14 × 106 per foot, and2.15 × 106 per foot), and three cowl positions (at thethroat and two forward positions). Computational datafor two of these configurations (CR = 3,Re = 2.15 × 106 per foot, at two cowl positions) arepresented along with a detailed analysis of the flow inter-actions in successive computational planes.SymbolscpuCRC,

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