Experiment and Numerical Investigation of a Forebody Design Method for Inward-Turning Inlet

The integration of three-dimensional inward-turning inlets with airframes has broad application prospects. This paper develops an integrated design method for the inlet forebody with a controllable incident shock wave shape, aiming at the three-dimensional inward-turning inlet with a circular entrance, and it is applied to the forebody design of a given inward-turning inlet to obtain a three-dimensional inward-turning inlet/forebody matching scheme. Numerical simulation and wind tunnel experiment were carried out to investigate the aerodynamic performance of the inlet. The results show that the inlet/forebody matching scheme successfully realizes both geometric and aerodynamic matching between the inlet and forebody, resulting in a shock-on-lip condition at the design point, with only a 2% reduction in mass flow rate. This indicates that the forebody design and matching method are highly effective. It should be noted that after the forebody matching is achieved, the overall compression effect of the inlet on the airflow is weakened, and both the Mach number and total pressure at the inlet outlet increase slightly.