Flow Control for a Submerged Inlet
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-1-2022
Abstract
Submerged inlets have the advantages of low drag, clean outer profile, and excellent stealth performance. Previous studies indicate that the zones of large total-pressure loss, located at the bottom and top regions of the exit plane, are the main cause of the poor aerodynamic performance in a submerged inlet. To improve the performance, a flow-control method is proposed in this paper, which includes both ramp side boundary layer bleeding and entrance side-edge vortex diverting. With numerical simulations, the efficacy of the proposed flow control is examined by comparing the aerodynamic performance and flow-field pattern of a baseline inlet and a controlled inlet over the typical flight envelope. The results prove that the proposed flow-control method can effectively discharge the low-energy flow of the forebody boundary layer on the ramp and isolate the major low-energy flow of the side-edge vortex. The proposed flow-control method results in a large improvement in the aerodynamic performance over the whole flight envelope. Specifically, the total pressure recovery (r) of the inlet with the proposed flow-control features raises 3.06%, and the distortion (DC60) and the swirl distortion (SC60) lessen by 72.57% and 17.73%, respectively, in contrast to the baseline inlet under the engine matching point of cruise state (Ma0 ¼ 0:72; a ¼ 2 deg; b ¼ 0 deg; Ma2 ¼ 0:39).
Publication Source (Journal or Book title)
Journal of Fluids Engineering, Transactions of the ASME
Recommended Citation
Xie, W., Zeng, C., Wang, Z., & Guo, S. (2022). Flow Control for a Submerged Inlet. Journal of Fluids Engineering, Transactions of the ASME, 144 (12) https://doi.org/10.1115/1.4055073
