Science in China Series E: Technological Sciences

© 2007 SCIENCE IN CHINA PRESS

Springer

A new concept and preliminary study of

variable hypersonic inlet with fixed geome-
try based on shockwave control
TAN HuiJun†, CHEN Zhi & LI GuangSheng
College of Energy and Power Engineering, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing
210016, China

The inlet plays a significant role in the hypersonic airbreathing propulsion. A

fixed-geometry inlet is troubled by low air-capture ratio and large additional drag
while operating below the design Mach number. Whereas a variable-geometry inlet
can maximize performance, but adds weight and complexity to the propulsion
system. Based on a fluidic shock shape control technique, this paper proposes a
new concept of variable hypersonic inlet with fixed geometry, gives the realization
scheme, and conducts a preliminary validation. The results show that the control of
the external shock system and the effective throat area can be achieved by the
self-provided high pressure fluid of the inlet. For an inlet with an operating
Mach-number region of 4 to 6, the shock-on-lip condition can be maintained from
Mach 5 to Mach 6 with the maximum expense of 1.8% secondary flow ratio, result-
ing in 20% extra captured mass flow and 8% less forebody drag at low Mach num-
bers compared with conventional fixed-geometry inlets. Thus, the performance
enhancement by using the proposed variable inlet can substantially benefit the
acceleration process of hypersonic vehicles at low Mach numbers.

hypersonic inlets, variable inlets, shock shape control technique

It is widely agreed that the air-capture ratio is a key parameter for high speed inlets and deter-
mines the thrust of engines proportionally. For scramjets the air-capture ratio of inlets is more
critical due to the insufficient net thrust obtained. For a fixed-geometry inlet, the air-capture ratio
can be as high as 1.0 at the design point where the shock-on-lip condition is met. But at Mach
numbers lower than the design value, the compression shocks of the ramps leave the cowl lip and
the so-called spillage occurs, resulting in low air-capture ratios. The additional drag of the inlet
also substantially increases since a part of the compressed air bypasses the inlet. For examples,
the air-capture ratio of a two-dimensional scramjet inlet with an operating Mach-number region

Received April 3, 2007; accepted July 30, 2007

doi: 10.1007/s11431-007-0072-7
†
Corresponding author (email: thj@263.net)
Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50776044)

www.scichina.com www.springerlink.com Sci China Ser E-Tech Sci | Oct. 2007 | vol. 50 | no. 5 | 644-657
of 3―6 studied in ref. [1] was only 0.73 at Mach 5.0, and the air-capture ratio of an axisymmetric
scramjet inlet with the same operating region in ref. [2] also dropped obviously to a value of 0.81
at Mach 5.0. It is evident that this situation deteriorates the performance of the propulsion system
and is especially disadvantageous to the acceleration process of hypersonic vehicles. Therefore,
much importance has been attached to the improvement of the air-capture performance of hyper-
sonic inlets.
But a further analysis indicates that the air-capture issue of hypersonic inlet is not an isolated
problem. The air-capture ratio affects the throat area which is required by the smooth starting of
inlet at low Mach numbers. Hence it is coupled with other performance parameters of the inlet,
such as total pressure recovery coefficient, operating Mach-number region, etc. A detailed expla-
nation can be made as follows:

In other words, for a conventional fixed-geometry inlet the increase of the air-capture ratio will
bring negative influence on other aspects. Either the total pressure recovery coefficient decreases,
or the operating Mach-number region shrinks. To avoid these performance penalties, vari-
able-geometry inlets are considered and studied extensively, such as the axisymmetric inlet with
translatable spike in ATREX[3], the umbrella-shaped inlet in HYPR[4], the two-dimensional inlet
with translatable ramps in ref. [5], the axisymmetric inlet with multi-row disks in ref. [6], and the
GTK inlet with translatable semi-conic centrebody in ref. [7]. By adjusting the ramp angles and
the throat height with mechanical methods, variable inlets may regulate the external compression
shocks and the contraction ratios according to the operating conditions, and therefore the prefer-
able aerodynamic performance can be achieved in a considerably wide Mach-number region.
However, the variable geometry inlets have the disadvantages of increased vehicle weight, in-
creased manufacturing complexity, decreased engine reliability and decreased volumetric effi-
ciency due to the need of acting devices, cooling passages, and sealing devices for moving com-
ponents. These drawbacks are uneconomical to earth-to-orbit vehicles because the additional dry
weight must be carried to orbit, and are detrimental to missiles typically characterized by light
weight, simple structure, and disposable usage.
Recently, a number of new fixed-geometry inlets have been put forward with the intention of
inheriting the merits of both variable-geometry inlets and fixed-geometry inlets. Special interests
focus on MHD controlled hypersonic inlets which were firstly proposed by Fraishtadt and his
coworkers[8] (Figure 1). With the aid of the coming flow contained or artificially made plasma
environment and a magnet located in the forebody, the method utilizes the Lorentz force to
change the flow direction and to achieve the control of the external shock system. It was claimed
that the air-capture ratios of hypersonic inlets increased obviously at low Mach numbers[9,10]. But
with the accompanying total pressure loss, the results of ref. [11] showed that the net income of
this technique was not noticeable at several operating conditions. Actually, from the point of view
of the vehicle the global performance of the MHD inlet is further degraded because of the need of

TAN HuiJun et al. Sci China Ser E-Tech Sci | Oct. 2007 | vol. 50 | no. 5 | 644-657 645
the plasma exciting device, the controllable electro-magnetic device, the energy storage unit, the
energy converter and some special devices. Besides, the interference of the strong magnetic field
could have formidable influence on the flight guidance and the radio communications of the ve-
hicle.

Figure 1 Schematic diagram of the magnetohydrodynamic inlet.

In 2001, under the financial support of NASA, Richard et al.[12] explored the concept of fluidic
compression inlet with fixed geometry. As illustrated in Figure 2, an extra gas stream angled rela-
tively to the incoming flow is introduced at a higher pressure than the inlet air. The contact sur-
face which is formed between the jet and the incoming flow acts as the compression ramp of tra-
ditional inlets. What is different from traditional fixed-geometry inlets is that both the virtual
ramp angle and the effective throat area can be altered by the regulation of the jet pressure. The
flow control principle of this fluidic inlet was primarily verified by CFD simulations in ref. [12].
However, the demand of massive secondary flow as high as 30% of the main stream captured by
the inlet substantially weakens the effectiveness of this flow control method. Therefore, the gain
in net thrust with the fluidic inlet goes to naught compared with conventional fixed-geometry
inlets. Furthermore, the acquisition of large amount of secondary flow and the arrangements of
large air delivery pipes are really thorny issues. The splitter plate installed in the internal duct also
bears additional penalties such as increase of weight, friction loss and shock loss of total pressure.
Based on the above reasons, there is not any successive report after the proposal of the fluidic
compression inlet. Anyway, Richard did demonstrate a way to realize variable inlets by fluidic
means.

Figure 2 Schematic diagram of the fluidic compression inlet.

The present research is motivated by the desire to achieve low spillage at low Mach numbers

646 TAN HuiJun et al. Sci China Ser E-Tech Sci | Oct. 2007 | vol. 50 | no. 5 | 644-657
and large effective contraction ratio at high Mach numbers without the incorporation of variable
geometry. A fluidic shock shape control technique with small fluid consumption and low driving
pressure ratio is put forward. Then a new variable hypersonic inlet with fixed geometry is devel-
oped through the utilization of this shock control technique. The feasibility and the performance
gain of the proposed variable inlet compared with the conventional design are also demonstrated
by CFD simulations.

1 The concept
After an in-depth study of Richard’s idea, a more practical concept of variable inlet with fixed
geometry is proposed in this paper (Figure 3). The concept is based on a shock shape control
technique through distributed fluid injections, which makes the external compression surfaces
and the effective throat of the inlet elastic to some extent.

Figure 3 Schematic diagram of the variable hypersonic inlet with fixed geometry based on the fluidic shock shape control
technique.

A crucial element of the variable inlet is the shock shape control technique which can be de-
scribed as follows. At the fore part of each ramp, a small quantity of secondary flow is introduced
to the main flow path according to a certain distribution and by a certain means (multi-hole panel,
multi-slot panel, etc.). Due to the mass addition and the resulting total pressure loss, the flow ca-
pability of the main flow is continuously weakened at the near wall region and the ‘aerodynamic
boundary’ is expelled to deflect outwards gradually. Therefore, the effective boundary of the main
flow becomes curved and a set of weak compression waves originate from the concave portion of
the ‘aerodynamic boundary’. These weak waves interfere with the oblique shock emanating from
the leading edge of each ramp, thus the shock shape is modified and the control of the relative
distance between the oblique shock and the cowl lip is achieved.
Therefore, the design Mach number of the inlet can be selected below the maximum operating
Mach number (e.g. for an inlet with an operating Mach-number region of 4―6, the design Mach
number can be 5.0 rather than 6.0 which is used in conventional designs). With the aid of the
shock shape control technique the shock-on-lip condition can be maintained at Mach numbers
above the design one (i.e. Mach numbers from 5 to 6) so that high area-capture ratios are ob-
tained in a wide Mach-number range. What is more, the regulation of the secondary flow rate
enables the effective contraction ratio of the inlet to be flexible at a certain range, which prevents
the inlet from inadequate rise of temperature ratio and static pressure ratio at high Mach numbers
due to a small contraction ratio. From the above discussion, it can be seen that the regulations of
the compression shock system and the throat area, which are the features of variable geometry

TAN HuiJun et al. Sci China Ser E-Tech Sci | Oct. 2007 | vol. 50 | no. 5 | 644-657 647
inlets, can both be achieved in the proposed inlet. For this reason, it is called variable hypersonic
inlet with fixed geometry in this paper. One thing worthy of note is that for conventional
fixed-geometry hypersonic inlets the design Mach number cannot be selected below the maxi-
mum operating Mach number in case of the ingestion of strong slip layer at high Mach numbers
which usually leads to a substantial drop of total pressure recovery and even to the unstable op-
eration of the engine.
Although the newly developed variable inlet is similar to what was proposed by Richard in
appearance, there exist essential differences. The method of Richard acquires the shock wave
control by the regulation of the high jet pressure which alters the entire contact surface. Therefore,
the demands of both the mass flow rate and the pressure ratio of the control jet stream are formi-
dable. In contrast, the concept proposed in this paper is based on the distributed mass addition
principle which achieves the modifications of shock shape by transforming the ‘aerodynamic
boundary’ of the main stream in special regions. Therefore, the newly proposed concept can be
realized at a substantially low cost. As compared with Richard’s method, the merits of the new
concept of variable inlet can be given as follows:
(1) The consumption of the secondary control flow is small (less than 3% of the captured main
flow in general, null while operating below the design Mach number) and the driving pressure is
low. Therefore, the secondary flow can be drawn from the isolator and circulates round the inlet.
In other words, the overall mass consumption is zero from the point of view of the inlet.
(2) Each compression shock is controlled separately. Consequently, it is suitable for hypersonic
inlets with multiple compression shocks, whereas Richard’s method can only be applied to sin-
gle-shock inlets.
(3) The volume of the control flow delivery pipes is small, which decreases the difficulties in
space arrangement. Actually, the concept of variable inlet can even be carried out through inter-
layer.
(4) There is no need to mount splitter plate inside the inlet. Hence, the punishments of extra
weight, additional friction loss can be avoided.
(5) The disturbances which are caused by the addition process of the control flow may force
the boundary layer to transit to turbulent flow in advance. Thus it is possible that there is no need
to use special forced transition devices of boundary layer which are necessary for hypersonic ve-
hicles with conventional inlets.
In addition, there is another great virtue in drag reduction for the newly proposed variable inlet
for several reasons. Firstly, the increase of the capture-area ratio reduces the overflowed airflow
which is already pre-compressed by the forebody of the vehicle and by the ramps of the inlet, and
therefore the additional drag of the inlet decreases. Secondly, the increase of the capture-area ra-
tio will certainly correspond to an enlarged geometric throat. Hence the frontal area of the fore-
body shrinks, which results in a further decrease of the pressure drag. Thirdly, the introduction of
the control flow leads to a reduction of the velocity gradient at the adjacent wall region and a
consequent decrease in the forebody friction drag. Finally, the drop of the design Mach number
means the increase of the shock angle. Therefore, the forebody is shortened while the height of
the inlet remains unchanged and the friction drag of the forebody decreases further.

2 The realization scheme

Figure 4 demonstrates a possible realization scheme of the newly proposed concept in combina-

648 TAN HuiJun et al. Sci China Ser E-Tech Sci | Oct. 2007 | vol. 50 | no. 5 | 644-657
tion with a generic hypersonic inlet with two external compression shocks. The variable inlet
consists of ramp, cowl, air delivery pipes, valves, multi-hole plates or multi-slot plates, pressure
stabilizing chambers, admission plate, and admission chamber. A pressure stabilizing chamber
and a multi-hole plate (or multi-slot plate) are installed at the forepart of each ramp. An admis-
sion plate and an admission chamber are placed in the internal high pressure region of the inlet
(usually behind the shoulder of the ramp). The stabilizing chambers and the admission chamber
are connected with each other by air delivery pipes of which the flow rates can be regulated by
valves.

Figure 4 A possible realization scheme of the variable hypersonic inlet with fixed geometry.

Whereupon, the secondary control flow can be extracted from the high pressure region of the
inlet by the admission plate and the admission chamber, delivered to the pressure stabilizing
chambers through the air pipes, and fed to the main flow path by multi-hole plates or multi-slot
plates in a prearranged way and at a prearranged distribution of mass flow rate. Thus the external
shock system of the inlet can be controlled freely just by the regulations of the valves. Further
more, the control flow which is drawn from the inlet rejoins the main flow path at the fore part of
each ramp. In other words, the control flow is utilized circularly, but it does partially occupy the
flow passage which is originally prepared for the main flow. Consequently, the effective throat
area of the inlet can also be adjusted by regulating the mass flow rate of the secondary control
flow.
The operating procedures of the variable inlet at different Mach numbers can be described as
follows. For an inlet which is intended to operate in a Mach-number region of M1—M2 (1< M1 <
M2), the design Mach number of the inlet can be selected as Ms (M1< Ms < M2) at which the
shock-on-lip condition is achieved and the inlet geometric contour line is devised. While the inlet
operates at a Mach number of Ms or below, there is no need of shock wave control and the valves
are all fully closed. As the operating Mach number increases above Ms, the valves open gradually
and the control device goes into action to avoid the ingestions of the external shocks, which re-
sults in a substantial total pressure drop of the inlet and possibly unstable operation of the engine.
The shock-on-lip condition can be maintained from Ms to M2 through careful regulations of the
valves. Therefore, the capture-area ratio of the variable inlet can be as high as 1 at the Mach-
number region of Ms to M2 and obviously higher than those of conventional fixed-geometry inlets
at Mach numbers below Ms.

TAN HuiJun et al. Sci China Ser E-Tech Sci | Oct. 2007 | vol. 50 | no. 5 | 644-657 649
3 Preliminary verifications of the concepts
3.1 Numerical method
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is used to perform preliminary investigations on the fluidic
shock shape control technique and the concept of variable hypersonic inlet with fixed geometry.
A two-dimensional CFD solver based on a control-volume-based technique is used to conduct the
analysis[13]. In solving the flow equations, a point Gauss-Seidel scheme is used to perform time
marching, and Roe’s scheme in combination with the MUSCL interpolation method is utilized to
obtain the inviscid flux at the control surfaces. In order to alleviate the numerical stiff problem
possibly encountered in the calculations of the low speed flow in the chambers, a time-derivative
preconditioning technique is also adopted. The turbulent flow is modeled by RNG k − ε model
of which the governing equations are discretized by a second-order upwind scheme. What is
more, standard wall functions are introduced to model the near-wall region flow.
The convergence of each run is decided according to the residual history of each governing
equation. When the residual of each equation drops four orders of magnitude and the mass flow
rates of both the secondary flow and the main flow are stable, the calculation is regarded as being
converged.
3.2 Preliminary verification of the fluidic shock shape control technique
The fluidic shock shape control technique is employed in a generic forebody of two-dimensional
hypersonic inlet to verify the effectiveness. As shown in Figure 5, the generic forebody has two
ramps of which the flow turning angles are 7° and 12°, respectively. At the fore part of the first
ramp, eight slots are placed to introduce the secondary flow in a distributed manner and to make
the control on the first shock. The slots are inclined to the ramp by an angle of 20° and the width
of the slots is large in the middle and small at both sides, and hence an abrupt start or stop of the
addition of the secondary control flow can be avoided. The ‘aerodynamic boundary’ of the main
flow is expected to be an S-shaped curve with small curvatures so as to decrease the accompany-
ing total pressure loss.

Figure 5 The problem description of the fluidic shock shape control method.

The computational grid used here is shown in Figure 6. The free stream Mach number is 6.0.
During the calculations, the total pressure at the right side of the pressure stabilizing chamber can
be altered to control the mass flow rate of the secondary flow and thus the shape of the shock
wave. Figure 7 demonstrates two static pressure contour plots of which the corresponding total
pressures at the right side of the chamber are 1.0 time and 2.9 times of the ramp surface static
pressure, respectively. The former case corresponds to the non-controlled state. For the latter

650 TAN HuiJun et al. Sci China Ser E-Tech Sci | Oct. 2007 | vol. 50 | no. 5 | 644-657
 Figure 6 Computational grid for the verifying model of the fluidic shock shape control method.

case, the shock shape is controlled by a small quantity of secondary flow which is 0.7% of the
mass flow captured by line AB (i.e. the supposed entrance of the inlet). In the bottom chart of
Figure 7, the ‘aerodynamic boundary’ of the main flow is also depicted. It can be seen that the
control fluid released from the first slot initially moves downstream along the ramp surface, but
subsequently it is deflected outwards continuously due to the filling and expelling effects of the
secondary flow introduced through the successive slots. Thus an S-shaped ‘aerodynamic bound-
ary’ of the main flow, which is concave at the fore part and convex at the rear part, is formed at
the fore part of the first ramp. While the main flow passes the curved ‘aerodynamic boundary’, a
set of weak compression waves emanates from the concave portion of the ‘aerodynamic bound-
ary’ and a set of expansion waves emanates from the convex portion of the ‘aerodynamic bound-
ary’. As a result, the first oblique shock is modified and deflected outwards continuously. The
intersection point of the first shock and the second shock moves to point A exactly in the latter
controlled case. The Schlieren photograph for the latter controlled case which is obtained by wind
tunnel test is shown in Figure 8. The experimentally obtained flow pattern agrees well with the
CFD results. Therefore, the effectiveness of the fluidic shock shape control concept is basically
verified. A further analysis of Figures 7 and 8 indicates that the intersection point of the two
shocks moves outwards by 30% of its original distance from the wall.
Figure 9 gives the Mach number contours of both the non-controlled and controlled cases. In
Figure 9, the effects of the introduced secondary flow on the thickness of the low momentum
flow can be easily obtained. As shown in this figure, the boundary layer is obviously thickened
by the addition of the control flow. On the first ramp, the secondary control flow occupies about
40% of the flow passage of the boundary layer. Nevertheless, the mass flow rate of the control
flow is small due to the low fluid speed, high static temperature, and small fluid density. The flow
passage which is occupied by the control flow shrinks substantially at the second ramp after a
further compression of the second shock. According to the realization scheme of the newly pro-
posed variable inlet, the secondary flow is drawn again by the admission plate after finishing the
shock control. In other words, the secondary flow circulates round the inlet and does not enter the
combustor. Therefore, the secondary flow itself does not directly lead to the decrease of the total
pressure recovery of the inlet. Considering that the total pressure loss of the secondary flow dur-
ing the circulation is supplemented by the shear stress work of the main flow, the total pressure
loss associated with the shock shape control process is transferred to the main flow. Other total

TAN HuiJun et al. Sci China Ser E-Tech Sci | Oct. 2007 | vol. 50 | no. 5 | 644-657 651
pressure loss may result from the curved shock of which the shock strength is intensified gradu-
ally along the flow direction.

Figure 7 The pressure contour plots with and without shock shape control (CFD results).

Figure 8 Schlieren photograph of the controlled case (experimental result).

To sum up, the shock wave control technique is effective with small consumption of secondary
flow, low driving pressure ratio, and little additional total pressure loss. Therefore, it can be inte-
grated into hypersonic inlets to achieve variable inlet designs with fixed geometry.
3.3 Preliminary verification of the concept of variable hypersonic inlet with fixed geome-
try
In order to verify the feasibility and the good performance of the new variable inlet with fixed
geometry, three inlets are designed and numerically studied under the same operating
Mach-number region of 4―6. Table 1 gives the main design parameters of the three inlets (inlets
A, B and C). From Table 1 it can be noted that the three inlets are of the same key parameters

652 TAN HuiJun et al. Sci China Ser E-Tech Sci | Oct. 2007 | vol. 50 | no. 5 | 644-657
such as the arrangement of shock system, the Mach number at the exit, and the starting Mach
number. Among the three inlets, inlets A and B are both conventional inlets with fixed geometry.
The shock-on-lip Mach numbers of inlets A and B are 6.0 and 5.0, respectively. Obviously, the
air-capture ratio of inlet B is higher than that of inlet A. Therefore, compared with inlet A, the
throat area of inlet B is increased by 25% to accommodate the increased captured flow and to
ensure the same starting Mach number. Inlet C is the new variable inlet with fixed geometry. The
configuration and the design parameters of inlet C are identical to those of inlet B except the em-
ployment of the shock shape control technique on the external compression shocks. That is to say,
for inlet C the shock-on-lip condition is always maintained at the Mach-number region of 5.0―
6.0 through the utilization of the shock control technique. In Figure 10, the configurations of the
three inlets are shown all together for comparisons.

Figure 9 The Mach number contour plots with and without shock shape control (CFD results).

Table 1 Design parameters of three hypersonic inlets

Normalized Mach number at the
Shock-on-lip Normalized area Arrangement of the Starting Mach
Type length of the exit of the inlet
Mach number of the throat shock system number
forebody while M0=6
Inlet A 6.0 1.00 1.0 Flow turning angle at
Inlet B 5.0 1.25 0.9 each ramp: 7.5°, 11.5°
4.0 2.60±0.052
Flow turning angle at
Inlet C 5.0 1.25 0.9
the cowl: 8°

The numerical analysis of the three inlets is performed at the operating Mach numbers of 4.0,
5.0 and 6.0. In the analysis of inlet C, the physical model is simplified and the internal flow of the
air delivery pipes and valves is not considered. Instead, the right sides of the pressure stabilizing
chambers, surfaces a and b (Figure 10) are defined as the pressure inlet condition which can sup-
ply the secondary flow and the bottom side of the admission chamber, surface c (Figure 10) is
defined as the pressure outlet condition which can extract the corresponding secondary flow.

TAN HuiJun et al. Sci China Ser E-Tech Sci | Oct. 2007 | vol. 50 | no. 5 | 644-657 653
 Figure 10 Three hypersonic inlets with the same operating Mach-number region of 4.0―6.0.

Figure 11 Mach number contour plots of inlet A and inlet C while the free stream Mach number is 4.0.

While operating at the Mach-number region of 4.0―5.0, the ramp shocks will not enter the
internal duct, and thus there is no need to perform shock control for inlet C. That is to say, with
the valve closed and no injection from the slots the flow pattern of inlet C is identical to that of
inlet B. Therefore, Figure 11 only demonstrates the Mach number contour plots of inlets A and C
with the boundary of spilled flow marked. It is found in Figure 11 that due to the lower
shock-on-lip Mach number the external compression shocks of inlet C move closer to the cowl
lip, which results in less spilled flow. The reduction of the spilled flow can substantially increase
the air-capture ratio and reduce the additional drag which is resulted from the high static pressure
on the MNO streamline.
During the computational process of inlet C, the inlet total pressures of surfaces a and b and
the outlet static pressure of surface c are altered to simulate the regulations of the valves and to
ensure the shock-on-lip conditions at different operating Mach numbers. While the variable inlet

654 TAN HuiJun et al. Sci China Ser E-Tech Sci | Oct. 2007 | vol. 50 | no. 5 | 644-657
 Figure 12 Mach number contour plots of inlets A, B and C while the free stream Mach number is 6.0.

operates at a free stream Mach number of 6.0, the total pressures of surfaces a and b and static
pressure of surface c are 10, 15, and 25 times of the free stream static pressure, respectively, with
the shock-on-lip condition met. The secondary flow extracted from surface c matches those con-
sumed at surfaces a and b in mass flow rate and equals 1.8% of the captured air flow of the inlet.
One thing worthy of note is that the static pressure at the admission plate is as high as 35 times of
the free stream static pressure, and thus the high total pressures at surfaces a and b of the pressure
stabilizing chambers are obtainable. Figure 12 demonstrates the Mach number contour plots of
inlets A, B and C while the free stream Mach number is 6.0. Because the shock-on-lip Mach
number of inlet B is 5.0, the two external compression shocks intersect in advance at point S
which is stationed in front of the cowl lip. After point S, the two oblique shocks coalesce into one
strong shock which goes into the internal duct and leads to shock reflections and strong
shock/boundary layer interactions. Thus the internal flow structure of the inlet becomes compli-
cated and consequently the total pressure loss becomes significant. What is more, the strong slip
layer which starts from point S may result in the unstable operation of the engine. Therefore, the
design idea of decreasing the shock-on-lip Mach number merely, which is adopted by inlet B, is
not advisable though the captured-area ratios at low operating Mach numbers are increased sub-
stantially. As to inlet C, the two external shock waves are effectively controlled by the injected
secondary flow and intersect at the cowl lip exactly. Therefore, the troubles which are encoun-
tered by inlet B do not appear. Despite that the boundary layer is thickened to some extent by the
addition of the secondary flow, the shock/boundary layer interactions in the internal ducts are not

TAN HuiJun et al. Sci China Ser E-Tech Sci | Oct. 2007 | vol. 50 | no. 5 | 644-657 655
intensified obviously. Therefore, the total pressure loss of inlet C is not significant. In fact, the
thickened boundary layer at the entrance decreases the ‘aerodynamic’ throat area of the inlet,
which is beneficial to increase of the effective contraction ratio and thus the temperature ratio and
static pressure ratio of the inlet. A further analysis of Figure 12 proves that at the operating Mach
number of 6.0 the effective throat area is shrunk by 15% due to the injection of the secondary
flow.
Table 2 presents the performance of the three inlets of which the performance gains of inlets B
and C are given relative to inlet A. It can be seen that inlet C gives excellent global performance
at the operating Mach numbers of 4.0, 5.0 and 6.0. When the operating Mach numbers are 4.0
and 5.0, compared with inlet A, the air-capture ratio of inlet C is raised by more than 20% with a
more than 8.5% drag reduction of the forebody and a small increase of the total pressure recovery.
At the operating Mach number of 6.0, in spite of a noticeable reduction of the total pressure re-
covery, the drag coefficient of the forebody of inlet C is substantially lower than that of inlet A.
Therefore, it can be concluded that the variable inlet with fixed geometry embodies the obvious
superiorities in air-capture ratio and forebody drag coefficient, which can significantly improve
the acceleration performance of hypersonic vehicles at low operating Mach numbers.

Table 2 Performance of three hypersonic inlets

Inlet A Inlet B Inlet C
Performance
(absolute value) (relative performance gain) (relative performance gain)
Air-capture ratio 1.000 +0.0% +0.0%
−19.9%, strong slip layer goes into
M0=6 Total pressure recovery coefficient 0.435 the engine and possibly leads to the −7.5%
unstable operation of the engine
Forebody drag coefficient 0.317 −2.0% −13.7%
Air-capture ratio 0.808 +21.8%
M0=5 Total pressure recovery coefficient 0.583 +1.4%
Forebody drag coefficient 0.330 −11.6%
Air-capture ratio 0.639 +20.2%
M0=4 Total pressure recovery coefficient 0.683 +2.0%
Forebody drag coefficient 0.363 −8.5%

4 Conclusions
Motivated by the desire to achieve low spillage at low Mach numbers and high effective contrac-
tion ratio at high Mach numbers without the incorporation of variable geometry, this paper pre-
sents a preliminary study on a fluidic shock shape control method with small fluid consumption
and low driving pressure ratio. Based on the shock control technique, a new concept of variable
hypersonic inlet with fixed geometry is proposed. Then a possible realization scheme of the new
variable inlet is put forward. To compare with the conventional inlets with fixed geometry, per-
formance gains of the newly developed variable inlet are verified by CFD simulations.
The distributed addition of the secondary flow forms an S-shaped ‘aerodynamic boundary’ of
the main flow. While the main flow passes the curved ‘aerodynamic boundary’, a set of weak
compression waves and a set of expansion waves are formed. Thus the control of the shock shape
is achieved. This new method of shock shape control which is based on local mass addition at the
bottom of the boundary layer has the merits of small consumption of secondary flow, low driving
pressure ratio, and little additional total pressure loss. Therefore, it can be integrated into hyper-

656 TAN HuiJun et al. Sci China Ser E-Tech Sci | Oct. 2007 | vol. 50 | no. 5 | 644-657
sonic inlets conveniently.
The newly developed variable inlet with fixed geometry achieves the control of the external
shock system and the effective throat area by the self-provided high pressure fluid. For an inlet
with an operating Mach-number region of 4 to 6, the shock-on-lip condition can be maintained
from Mach 5 to 6 with the maximum expense of 1.8% secondary flow ratio, resulting in 20%
extra captured mass flow and 8% less forebody drag at low Mach numbers as compared with
conventional fixed-geometry inlets. As the newly devised variable inlet also embodies the virtues
of fixed geometry and easy realization scheme, it is regarded as a hopeful and practical technol-
ogy which demonstrates direct benefit to scramjet system-level metrics at off-design conditions.

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TAN HuiJun et al. Sci China Ser E-Tech Sci | Oct. 2007 | vol. 50 | no. 5 | 644-657 657