Inlets-Subsonic and Supersonic

12/10/2015 Subsonic and supersonic inlet for jet engine: | pritamashutosh
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Subsonic and supersonic inlet for
jet engine:
Posted on February 19, 2014
Subsonic Inlets:
Most subsonic aircraft have their engines placed in nacelles; thus, in this section we do not
deal with the inlet alone but include the nacelle at subsonic Mach numbers. The cross
section of a typical subsonic inlet and its geometric parameters are shown in Fig. 10.1. The
inlet area A1 is based on the flow cross section at the inlet highlight. Because the subsonic
inlet can draw in airflow whose free stream area A0 is larger than the inlet area A1 , variable
inlet geometry is not
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required (except sometimes blowin doors or auxiliary inlets are used to reduce installation
drag during takeoff). The material in this section on subsonic inlets is based on a fixed
geometry inlet.
The operating conditions of an inlet depend on the flight velocity and mass flow demanded by
the engine. Figure 10.2 shows the streamline pattern for three typical subsonic conditions.
Figure 10.2a shows acceleration of the fluid external to the inlet that will occur when the inlet
operates at a velocity lower than the design value or at a mass flow higher than the design
value.
Figure 10.2c shows deceleration of the fluid external to the inlet that will occur at a velocity
higher than design or a mass flow lower than design.
A list of the major design variables for the inlet and nacelle includes the following:
1) Inlet total pressure ratio and drag at cruise
2) Engine location on wing or fuselage (avoidance of foreignobject damage, inlet flow
upwash and downwash, exhaust gas reingestion, ground clearance)
3) Aircraft attitude envelope (angle of attack, yaw angle, crosswind takeoff)
4) Inlet total pressure ratio and distortion levels required for engine operation
5) Engineout wind milling airflow and drag (nacelle and engine)
6) Integration of diffuser and fan flow path contour
7) Integration of external nacelle contour with thrust reverser and accessories
8) Flow field interaction between nacelle, pylon, and wing
9) Noise suppression requirements
Diffusers
A diffuser is a component of a fluid flow system designed to reduce the flow velocity and
thereby increase the fluid pressure. All turbo machines and many other flow systems
incorporate a diffuser (ex. closed circuit wind tunnels, the duct between the compressor and
burner of a gas turbine engine, the duct at exit from a gas turbine connected to the jet pipe,
the duct following the impeller of a centrifugal compressor, etc.). Turbo machinery flows are,
in general, subsonic (M < 1) and the diffuser can be represented as a channel diverging in the
direction of flow (see Figure 2.13).
The basic diffuser is a geometrically simple device with a rather long history of investigation
by many researchers. The long timespan of the research is an indicator that the fluid
mechanical processes within it are complex, the research rather more difficult than might be
anticipated, and some aspects of the flow processes are still not fully understood.
There is now a vast literature about the flow in diffusers and their performance. Only a few of
the more prominent investigations are referenced here. A noteworthy and recommended
reference, however, which reviews many diverse and recondite aspects of diffuser design
and flow phenomena, is that of Kline and Johnson (1986).
The primary fluid mechanical problem of the diffusion process is caused by the tendency of
the boundary layers to separate from the diffuser walls if the rate of diffusion is too rapid. The
result of too rapid diffusion is always large losses in stagnation pressure. On the other hand,
if the rate of diffusion is too low, the fluid is exposed to an excessive length of wall and fluid
friction losses become predominant. Clearly, there must be an optimum rate of diffusion
between these two extremes for which the losses are minimized. Test results from many
sources indicate that an included angle of about 2q = 7deg gives the optimum recovery for
both
twodimensional and conical diffusers angle of about 2q = 7deg gives the optimum recovery
for both twodimensional and conical diffusers.
Diffuser performance parameters
The diffusion process can be represented on a Mollier diagram, Figure 2.12b, by the change
of state from point 1 to point 2, and the corresponding changes in pressure and velocity from
p1 and c1 to p2 and c2 . The actual performance of a diffuser can be expressed in several
different ways:
(i) as the ratio of the actual enthalpy change to the isentropic enthalpy change;
(ii) as the ratio of an actual pressure rise coefficient to an ideal pressure rise coefficient.
For steady and adiabatic flow in stationary passages, h01 = h02 , so that
SUPERSONIC INLETS
The supersonic inlet is required to provide the proper quantity and uniformity of air to the
engine over a wider range of flight conditions than the subsonic inlet is. In addition, the nature
of supersonic flow makes this inlet more difficult to design and integrate into the airframe. In
supersonic flight, the flow is decelerated by shock waves that can produce a total pressure
loss much greater than, and in addition to, the boundarylayer losses. Indeed, at M0 = 3, a
simple pitottype inlet preceded by a normal shock wave would have a total pressure
recovery hr of 0.32 due to the normal shock alone!
An engine overall compression ratio is the product of the engine’s ram, diffuser, and
compressor pressure ratios:
thrust per unit mass flow are very sensitive to the diffuser pressure ratio Pd . For supersonic
cruise flight, therefore, the design of the inlet becomes of paramount importance. For this
reason, we shall now examine the basic principles and operating characteristics of
supersonic aircraft inlets (or diffusers). The study of supersonic inlets is not new, and many
excellent books and reports have been written for the benefit of students and practicing
professionals (see Refs. 5459 and 6167). Special attention should be paid to Ref. 55, a
textbook that covers the aerodynamics of inlets.
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