Design concept of three-dimensional section controllable internal waverider hypersonic inlet

A new hypersonic inlet named three-dimensional section controllable internal waverider inlet is presented in this paper to achieve the goal of section shape geometric transition and complete capture of the upstream mass. On the basis of the association between hypersonic waverider airframe and streamtraced hypersonic inlet, the waverider concept is extended to yield results for the internal flows, namely internal waverider concept. It is proven theoretically that not osculating cones but osculating axisymmetric theory is appropriate for the design of section controllable internal waverider inlet. And two design methods out of the internal waverider concept are proposed subsequently to construct two inlets with specific section shape request, triangle to ellipse and rectangle to ellipse ones. The calculation results show that the inlets are capable of keeping their shock structures and the main flow characteristics exactly as their derived flowfield. Further, the inlets successfully capture all the upstream mass despite their complicated cross-section transitions. It is believed that the concept proposed explores a new way of designing three-dimensional hypersonic inlets with special demand of section shape transition. However, the detailed flow characteristic and the performance of the internal waverider inlets are still under investigation. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 90405009)