INVISCID PARAMETRIC ANALYSIS OF 3-DIMENSIONAL INLET PERFORMANCE

The advantages and design requirements of propulsion/airframe integrat ion for the high Mach number flight of air-breathing vehicles have led to extensive study of the three-dimensional sidewall-compression scra mjet inlet in recent years. Inlets of this genre afford a relatively s imple, generic geometry while producing a highly complex, three-dimens ional flowfield dominated by shock/shock and shock/boundary-layer inte ractions. While the importance of the viscous effects in high-speed in let interactions is recognized, the present work addresses in a parame tric fashion the inviscid effects of leading-edge sweep (between 0-70 deg) and inflow Mach number (between 2-12) on the inlet performance. T wo-dimensional oblique shock theory is appropriately modified to accou nt for the three-dimensional effects of leading-edge sweep and is appl ied throughout the inlet configuration to obtain inviscid shock imping ement locations, mass capture, inlet compression, total pressure recov ery, and kinetic energy efficiency. Comparison of these results with C FD indicates that the parametric trends are identified by this computa tionally quick and inexpensive method for preliminary design applicati ons.