Aerodynamics Simulation of Three Hypersonic Forebody/Inlet Models

The purpose of this paper is to examine the aerodynamic characteristics of three hypersonic configurations including pure liftbody configuration, pure waverider configuration and liftbody integrated with waverider configuration. Hypersonic forbodies were designed based on these configurations. For the purpose to integrate with ramjet or scramjet, all the forebodies were designed integrated with hypersonic inlet. To better understand the forebody performance, three dimensional flow field calculation of these hypersonic forebodies integrated with hypersonic inlet were conducted in the design and off design conditions. The computational results show that waverider offer an aerodynamic performance advantage in the terms of higher lift-drag ratios over the other two configurations. Liftbody offer good aerodynamic performance in subsonic region. The aerodynamic performance of the liftbody integrated with waverider configuration is not comparable to that of pure waverider in the terms of lift-drag ratios and is not comparable to that of pure liftbody in subsonic. But the liftbody integrated with waverider configuration exhibit good lateral-directional and longitudinal-directional stability characteristics. Both pure waverider and liftbody integrated with waverider configuration can provide relatively uniform flow for the inlet and offer good aerodynamic characteristics in the terms of recovery coefficient of total pressure and uniformity coefficient.