Home – Home – Jornals – Thermophysics and Aeromechanics 2008 number 1

An experimental study of different control methods for hypersonic air inlets aimed at ensuring reliable starting of these apparatuses and improving their operating characteristics in the range of Mach numbers 2 to 8 is reported. Conditions for boundary-layer separation and possibilities for preventing this separation by using modified diffuser configurations and/or perforation bleedage are examined. An air-inlet model was tested for operation in an intermittent wind tunnel and in a blow-down wind tunnel respectively in the Mach-number ranges 2 to 6 and 5 to 8. Distributions of static and total air pressures on the walls of the model and in several cross sections were measured, together with air flow coefficients and total-pressure recovery coefficients. Perforation bleedage is shown to offer an efficient means to facilitate air-inlet starting. Perforation bleed has enabled a more than two-fold increase in the air flow coefficient on the model with sidewalls. A perforation-bleed panel installed closer to the air-inlet throat proved to be more efficient. The possibility of sudden starting of the air-inlet apparatus was checked in the intermittent wind tunnel; it was shown that, here, sudden starting could be realized. The data obtained in the intermittent wind tunnel proved to be consistent with data obtained in the blow-down wind tunnel with up to 150-ms blowdown time.