Test of a generic sidewall compression scramjet inlet in the high-enthalpy impulse wind tunnel

A generic three-dimensional scramjet inlet with two ramps and mid-located sidewalls was tested in the CARDC (chinese aerodynamic research and development center) high-enthalpy impulse wind tunnel at Mach 6. Distributions of the static pressure along the centerlines of the top wall, sidewall and cowl bottom wall, and Pitot-pressure distributions at the inlet and isolator exit plane were experimentally obtained. Among them, static pressure distributions were compared with the numerical results simulated by FLUENT software and show good agreement except for some pressure peaks throughout the inlet and isolator. Based on the experimental data, typical characteristics of the flowfiled were identified. Pitot-pressure distributions show at the inlet exit plane, the flowfield is significantly nonuniform, but at the isolator exit plane, the core flow tends to be nominally uniform. Experimental results indicate the scramjet inlet has a better performance with a mass capture ratio 0.83, averaged Mach number 2.57, total pressure recovery 0.296, and compression pressure ratio 23.7 at the isolator exit plane.