Distinctive Features of the Lateral Flow for a Convergent Air-Intake with a Convergent Nose Compression Surface.

The results of numerical and experimental studies of a model configuration of a hypersonic vehicle realizing the principle of compression convergence of the entire jet captured by an air-intake from the oncoming stream are presented. The external flow past a convergent air-intake integrated with a transversely-concave nose compression surface is investigated over the freestream Mach number range from 2 to 6. The salient features of the flow pattern near air-intakes with sidewalls of different length are established and the influence of a limitation on the lateral flow near the external compression wedge on the flow rate characteristics of the air-intake is established. The numerical calculations are performed within the framework of the inviscid gas model using higher-order TVD schemes; the calculated and experimental results are compared. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]