Investigation of aerodynamic heating in V-shaped cowl-lip of the inward turning inlet

Abstract

Complex flow field structure, which is induced by the leading edge of V-shaped cowl-lip in hypersonic inward turning inlet, causes severe thermal load. The V-shaped cowl-lip is simplified as the V-shaped leading edge. Both wind tunnel tests and numerical simulations are applied to study the flow field structures. And numerical simulation is used to investigate the heat flux. The result shows that the V-shaped leading edge, compared with blunt body and slender body, presents complex shock wave interaction and suffers from critical aerodynamic heating. The shape parameter of the V-shaped leading edge, angle θ of the leading edge, is not a sensitive parameter of the heat flux. It does not effectively reduce the maximum of the heat flux. Another shape parameter, ratio (R/r) of rounded radius and blunted radius, has obvious effect on the peak value of the heat flux. The heat flux does not decrease necessarily with increasing R/r when R/r<2. It reduces significantly with increasing R/r when 2<R/r<6. The heat flux does not change much with changing R/r when R/r>6.