Design of hypersonic inward turning inlets with controllable Mach number distribution

A method has been devised for the design of hypersonic inward turning inlets. On condition that the Mach number distribution along the surface of basic flowfield had been given, this method applied the rotational method of characteristics to design axisymmetric flowfield and streamtracing techniques to generate an invisid configuration, and then designed final inlets with viscous correction. Five typical kinds of basic flowfields designed under same constraints had been investigated. Complete design procedure was described based on the law of arc tangent Mach number distribution, and the characteristics of a hypersonic inward turning inlet with circular shape entrance were studied through number simulation. The results indicate that, there is a biggish diversity between Mach numerical distributions and its corresponding law of pressure rise; Busemann basic flowfield is very similar to constant Mach number gradient distribution; the basic flowfield with arc tangent Mach number distribution has the best general performance; the Mach number distribution on streamlines of the surface of inlets dovetails well with basic flowfield; this kind of inlet has a good performance and its general performance is roughly equivalent to an inlet with controlled pressure gradient at design point.