Numerical investigation of real-gas effect of inward-turning inlet at Mach 12

To investigate the influence of the real-gas effect on the flow of the inward-turning inlet while an air breathing propulsion system flies at a high Mach number, gas models of thermally perfect gas, chemical non-equilibrium gas, and thermochemical non-equilibrium gas are used for numerical simulation of the inward-turning inlet at Mach 12. The results show that the dissociation reaction is the most severe in the initial stage of the stream-wise vortex and the attachment area of the slip-line near the symmetry plane. The degree of the dissociation reaction in thermochemical non-equilibrium gas is more severe than in chemical non-equilibrium gas. In the thermochemical non-equilibrium gas model, the dissociation degree of oxygen reaches 54.8% at the symmetry plane, and the vortex area of the isolator exit is the smallest, which makes the performance at the isolator exit different from the other two gas models. The real-gas effect in thermochemical non-equilibrium gas has a more obvious influence on the flow characteristics and performance of the inward-turning inlet at Mach 12. (C) 2021 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.