Design concept of three-dimensional section controllable internal waverider hypersonic inlet

Abstract

A new hypersonic inlet named three-dimensional section controllable internal waverider inlet is presented in this paper to achieve the goal of section shape geometric transition and complete capture of the upstream mass. On the basis of the association between hypersonic waverider airframe and streamtraced hypersonic inlet, the waverider concept is extended to yield results for the internal flows, namely internal waverider concept. It is proven theoretically that not osculating cones but osculating axisymmetric theory is appropriate for the design of section controllable internal waverider inlet. And two design methods out of the internal waverider concept are proposed subsequently to construct two inlets with specific section shape request, triangle to ellipse and rectangle to ellipse ones. The calculation results show that the inlets are capable of keeping their shock structures and the main flow characteristics exactly as their derived flowfield. Further, the inlets successfully capture all the upstream mass despite their complicated cross-section transitions. It is believed that the concept proposed explores a new way of designing three-dimensional hypersonic inlets with special demand of section shape transition. However, the detailed flow characteristic and the performance of the internal waverider inlets are still under investigation. section controllable, internal waverider, hypersonic inlet, osculating flow, all mass captureThe new design concept of inward turning hypersonic inlet [1] has received considerable attention in the research community of hypersonic inlet design. It has been proven lately that the inlet holds the potential of better aerodynamic performance than those with conventional compression styles. For example, the JAWS [2,3] developed by U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) got a 24.87% net thrust addition compared with a typical two-dimensional planar hypersonic inlet. In June 2007, the hypersonic collaborative Australia/United States experiment (HyCAUSE) [4,5] flight experimental scramjet engine validated the performance of another three-dimensional inward turning hypersonic inlet. Recently, Lockheed has announced that their next generation hypersonic aircraft, Force Application and Launch from CONUS (FALCON) [6,7] , will also contain two modules of the innovative three-dimensional inward turning inlet. In the critical reviews [8][9][10] , Billig from Johns Hopkins University, stated the foundation of the concept, detailed design method as well as the performance of streamtraced inlet, an important member of the inward turning inlets. More significantly, it is believed [10] that the threedimensional inward turning inlet will lead the hypersonic inlet research in the future and consequently bring about a revolution in scramjet propulsion technology.The ongoing three-dimensional hypersonic inlets include Busemann, JAWS, modular waverider, rectangular to elliptical shape transition (REST) and rectangular to circular shape transition (RCST) ones. According to their integration manner...

Design methodology for shape transition inlets based on constant contraction of discrete streamtubes

“…2. Section controllable internal waverider hypersonic inlet design 9 using the theory of osculating axisymmetric flow. 10 It uses a series of axisymmetric coaxial flows which have the same generatrix but different center body radii to realize smooth shape transition.…”

Conceptual design and aerodynamic evaluation of hypersonic airplane with double flanking air inlets

“…The completely integrated design of the airframe and propulsion system is generally adopted for the air-breathing hypersonic vehicles, however, as both the aerodynamic performance for the airframe and the engine intake/exhaust requirements shall be taken into account simultaneously, the design difficulty increased dramatically [1,[4][5][6]. As far as we know, the current aerodynamic design for hypersonic vehicles is mainly for the demonstration vehicles which focused on minimizing resistance and the optimal matching between airframe and engine, and the forebody and engine inlet integrated design is the key issues for the configuration design [7,8].The current air-breathing hypersonic vehicles can be mainly divided into two categories according to the different inlet layouts, i.e. with nose inlet and with ventral inlet.…”

“…The hypersonic vehicle with nose inlet layout, such as the U.S. HyFly hypersonic demonstration vehicle [9], can efficiently achieve uniformly distributed airflow with high total pressure recovery coefficient for the engine by decreasing the interference of airframe to the maximum extent.. Moreover, the popular internal waverider inlet [7,[10][11][12][13] is also suited to the nose inlet layout [14]. The ventral inlet layout is the most commonly used layout for hypersonic vehicles,…”

“…The ventral inlet layout is the most commonly used layout for hypersonic vehicles, the U.S. X-43 and X-51 etc. demonstration hypersonic vehicles are all designed with ventral inlets [1,4,5,7,8,15,16]. It is characterized with engine mounted on the abdomen, and the forebody is designed as a waverider or lifting-body which not only provides high-quality airflow for the engine inlet but also generate great lift force to improve the lift-to-drag ratio and pitching-balance performances of the vehicle [17][18][19][20][21].…”

双旁侧进气高超声速飞机概念设计与评估

“…但采用此方案时, 气动构型设计须兼 顾整机气动性能指标要求和发动机进排气需求, 设 计难度急剧增加 [1, 4~6] . 就公开发表的文献来看, 目 前高超声速飞行器气动布局设计主要针对演示验证 飞行器, 设计重点为尽可能减小阻力并同时保证前/ 后体与发动机的进排气系统的最优匹配, 前体与发 动机进气道的一体化是其中的关键问题 [7,8] .…”