2022 conference paper
Experimental Studies of Unstart Shock Dynamics within a Streamtraced Scramjet Inlet
AIAA AVIATION 2022 Forum.
Contributors: E. Johnson n, C. Jenquin n & V. Narayanaswamy n
UN Sustainable Development Goal Categories
7. Affordable and Clean Energy
(OpenAlex)
Source: ORCID
Added: August 5, 2023
Streamtraced inlets offer unparalleled inlet efficiencies for hypersonic air breathing propulsion engines, but experimentally investigating these complex three-dimensional compression systems has proven to be a challenging task. Traditional pressure transducers can be difficult to mount to perfectly contoured geometries and simply cannot provide a holistic understanding of the three-dimensional flow field produced by these inlets. This effort address these concerns by implementing a sprayable dynamic pressure-sensitive paint to select interior regions of a streamtraced inlet. The use of this paint allows for a more complete understanding of the flow evolution within the scramjet inlet by producing time-accurate surface pressure fields at the painted areas. For this experimental study, this paint is used to examine the shock dynamics within a started inlet and during inlet unstart. Power spectral density analyses of the attached boundary layers within the isolator of the started inlet reveal energies that agree strongly with those measured within two-dimensional inlet/isolators, while cross-coherence studies of the unstarted inlet reveal a strong linear coupling between the separated inflow at the intake and the flow entrained within the isolator.