A Study on Blended Inlet Body Design for a High Supersonic Unmanned Aerial Vehicle

The design process of blended inlet body (BIB) for the preliminary design of a near-space high supersonic unmanned aerial vehicle (HSUAV) is presented. The mass flow rate and cowl area of inlet at a design point are obtained according to the cruise condition of the HSUAV. A mixed-compression axisymmetric supersonic inlet section with a fixed geometry reasonably matching the high supersonic cruise state is created by using the inviscid theory of aerodynamics. The inlet section is optimized and used as a baseline section for the BIB design. Three BIB concepts for the HSUAV are proposed, and their internal aerodynamic characteristics of inlet are evaluated using Euler computational fluid dynamics (Euler CFD) solver. The preferred concept is identified, in which the straight leading edge of the baseline HSUAV configuration is modified into the convex leading edge to accommodate the inlet and meet the requirements of the cowl area to capture the sufficient air flow. The total recovery of inlet for the preferred BIB concept and the aerodynamic characteristics of the modified HSUAV configuration are verified using Navier-Stokes computational fluid dynamics (NS CFD) solver. The validation indicates that the preferred BIB concept can meet both the requirements of the inlet and aerodynamic performance of the HSUAV.