Compression through curvature- flow physics and performance of hypersonic curved ramp air intakes
Abstract
The air intake is a critical component of any air-breathing hypersonic flight vehicle, i.e., any scramjet-powered vehicle. Historically, intake designs typically followed multi-step flat ramp configurations, with designs that incorporate two or three ramp sections being the most common. In recent years, designs with wall curvature in the compression ramp section(s) are quickly gaining traction among researchers and flight vehicle designers. Such designs offer certain key performance benefits over flat ramp configurations. Curved compression ramp (CCR) intakes are a class of air intakes with curved compression ramp walls. Recent theoretical modeling efforts, along with preliminary experiments by the PI s research group, clearly demonstrate the advantages offered by hypersonic 2D CCR intakes in terms of intake self-startability, pressure recovery, and robustness to unstart at off-design conditions (back-pressure or angle-of-attack variations). The proposed project is aimed at extending the modeling efforts to optimize the design of 2D CCR intakes and to perform a comprehensive set of hypersonic wind tunnel experiments with optimized intake geometries. In addition to verifying theoretical model results, the experiments are designed to provide rich time-resolved data on the intake flow. The data will lead to very helpful insights into the flow physics that dictate the performance of CCR intakes. Overall, results from this project will lead to a comprehensive knowledge of the workings and performance of CCR air intakes for hypersonic flight and provide a fast first-cut design tool-model for optimizing their performance. In future the ideas and methods developed in the proposed effort can be extended to other classes of curved ramp intakes, including 3D geometries.
Document Details
- Document Type
- DoD Grant Award
- Publication Date
- Feb 05, 2025
- Source ID
- FA23862414029
Entities
People
- Subrahmanyam Duvvuri
Organizations
- Air Force Office of Scientific Research
- United States Air Force