Effects of Bleed Position on the Stability of a Supersonic Inlet

Effects of various boundary-layer bleed locations on the stability of an axisymmetric supersonic inlet has been investigated experimentally. The bleeds were located on the inlet compression cone and were designed to improve the stability margin of the inlet. The main objective of the study was to identify the boundary-layer bleed location and its effects on the improvement of the stability margin of the inlet. In addition, a buzz precursor detection methodology based on the rms level has been introduced. Experiments have been carried out on a mixed-compression inlet with a design Mach number of 2.0 and three different bleed locations at three freestream Mach numbers of 1.8, 2.0, and 2.2. All tests were conducted at an angle of attack of 0 deg. The results show that, based on the individual design of an inlet, a location can be found that the spilled normal shock stands at this location and consequently separation starts at the buzz onset. If the bleed slot is located in this place, the subcritical performance and stability margin of the inlet can be enhanced.