Research on the Design Methods of Channeled Centerbody Supersonic Inlet

Abstract

Channeling centerbody provides a wide variation in throat area, which makes it possible to start the inlet at lower velocity and get high performance at cruise conditions. We developed a new method to design the channels and performed three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics analysis. We found that the starting characteristics of the channeled centerbody inlet are different from that of the equivalent centerbody inlet The unchanneled parts of the inlet are still unstarted at low Mach numbers, and the aerodynamic performance of the channeled parts of the inlet are apparently affected by the channels. Boundary layer separation developed seriously due to abruptly turning down of the channel contour, and it decreased the available cross-section area of the channel seriously.