Numerical Study of the Performance of Swept, Curved Compression Surface Scramjet Inlets

A computational performance enhancement study was performed employing systematic modifications to a planarsidewall compression scramjet inlet operating at an entrance Mach number of 4 and at a dynamic pressure of 2040 psf. The variations included modifying the planar-side wall compression angle as a function of height, utilizing sidewall curvature, and employing, simultaneously, both forward-swept and reverse-swept compression surfaces. Turbulent flowfield solutions were generated by solving the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations to obtain inlet performance parameters such as total-pressure recovery, mass capture, and flowfield pressure distortion (the ratio of maximum static pressure to minimum static pressure generated at the inlet exit plane). Additionally, an inviscid parametric study was performed by employing solutions to the Euler equations to optimize a cubic polynomial that defined the longitudinal sidewall geometry. A final viscous flowfield solution of the optimized inviscid inlet geometry yielded inlet performance improvements; however, inlet top-wall surface boundary-layer shock wave separation interactions persisted. Hence, this numerical study demonstrated that enhanced performance is obtainable via curved-wall geometric modifications to the standard planar-sidewall inlet design, although future work should employ constraints to mitigate detrimental flow separation effects.