ABSTRACT

The recent advances in aerospace vehicle technology demands the best possible
propulsive balance to provide better thrust and minimum drag. Air-breathing engines are the best
choice for the propulsion due to its minimum weight. The efficiency of such engines depends
upon the quality of air entering for combustion. At hypersonic and supersonic speeds the inlet
passage flow field becomes important in deciding performance.

In the proposed research computational tests (both experimental and analytical) will be
carried out to get an understanding of the flow field in a pure inline-compression hypersonic inlet
and mixed-compression inlet at suitable free stream Mach numbers. 2D and 3D simulations will
be carried out using any Computational Fluid Dynamics [CFD] tools. The validations of
computational results are done with the experimental data.

From the literature survey done it came to know that the boundary layer formed inner
side of the engine had an adverse pressure gradient on the ramp producing a boundary layer
separation. Due to this the boundary layer thickens and the static pressure starts to decrease
whose effect leads till the trailing edge of inlet. By optimizing the design parameters and using
alternative methods I am trying to smoothen the boundary layer formed inside the inlet and
thereby an efficient compression than the actual case. There is also a proposed research plan of
customizing the design parameters by coding it using computer languages like C, Fortran or C++
so that it will be of great use for those who are doing future research in this area.