Luigi BELLOMO, Bayindir H SARACOGLU
DOI Number: N/A
Conference number: HiSST-2025-153
Hypersonic air-propulsion propulsion promises a paradigm change in civil aviation and space access by radically increasing the travel speeds, exploiting higher flight altitudes and leveraging lifting airframes as well as horizontal take off an landing. However, the realizing hypersonic flight requires successful implementation of air-breathing propulsion system with all its vital components along the flow path starting from the air intake. Hypersonic vehicles necessitates seamless integration of the propulsion system on airframe due to harsh aero-thermal flight conditions as well as overall aero-propulsive efficiency of the entire system. Consequently, design of three-dimensional intakes is critical to achieve plausible hypersonic concepts that can eventually soar at stratospheric altitudes. Current study summaries a design methodology for highly 3D intakes starting from 2D analytical designs generated with the Taylor–Maccoll equations. Streamline tracing of the isolator profile following viscous corrections are then implemented to extract the final geometry by taking into account the effects of boundary layer developing over the long flow path from the leading edge to the combustor interface. The final 3D geometry was then numerically tested using 3D RANS simulations at on-design Mach 5 flight conditions at 25 km of altitude. Finally an exhaustive numerical camping was conducted to generate the performance characteristics matrix for the intake at off-design conditions.