Design and analysis of air intake of subsonic cruise vehicle with experimental validation

Abstract

A Subsonic Cruise Vehicle (SCV) is designed with a Submerged Air intake with appreciable total pressure recovery along with acceptable distortion levels. A steady, 3D, density based, one equation turbulence model in congregation with Navier Stokes is used to simulate the flow field in commercial CFD code. In the initial iteration of the intake, the numerical simulation pointed towards a large scope in the improvement of the geometry. Subsequently, the design changes have been successfully incorporated and analyzed. The performance of these modified intakes was evaluated by measuring distortion coefficient and total pressure recovery. An experimental validation case has been demonstrated in a subsonic wind tunnel, which proves the close match with the CFD prediction. The comparison between the performances of the intakes has been made. The redesigned submerged air intake is flown successfully with SCV at all flight conditions within the acceptable distortion limits.