MIT School of Engineering, Pune.

Department of Aerospace Engineering

Course Code: 21BTAE503
Name of the Subject: Aircraft Propulsion
Name of the Subject Teacher: Prof. Pandi Siddharth
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UNIT – II SUBSONIC AND SUPERSONIC INLETS
Inlets for subsonic aircraft,
Types of Subsonic Inlets,
External and internal deceleration of subsonic inlets,
Flow separation in subsonic inlets,
Performance of subsonic inlets,
Supersonic flight,
Reverse CD nozzle,
Modes of supersonic inlets,
Shock Swallowing Techniques,
External, Internal and mixed compression inlets,
Buzz and other instabilities.
Inlets or Intake or Diffuser:
All air breathing engines installed in an aircraft must be provided with an air intake and a
ducting system (which is also identified as inlet or diffuser) to diffuse the air from free
stream velocity to a lower velocity acceptable for further processing by other engine
components.
The inlet component is designed to capture the exact amount of air required to accomplish
the diffusion with maximum static pressure rise, minimum total pressure loss, deliver the
air with tolerable flow distortion (as uniform as possible), and contribute the least possible
external drag to the system. For gas turbine engine (turbojet, turbofan, and turboprop), the
airflow entering subsonic compressors or fans must be of low Mach number, of the order
0.4–0.5 or less even if the aircraft speed is supersonic.

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 For a ramjet also, the inlet reduces the speed to a subsonic value to have a subsonic
combustion. Thus, the entrance duct usually acts as a diffuser.
Inlets may be classified as
1) Subsonic or supersonic
2) Fixed or variable geometry
Subsonic Intakes: Subsonic intakes are found in the turbojet or turbofan engines powering
most of the present civil transports (commercial and cargo aircraft). Examples of these
engines are the JT8, JT9, PW 4000series, RB211, Trent series, and V2500 powering many of
the Boeing and Airbus aircraft transports.
The surface of the inlet is a continuous smooth curve where the very front (most upstream
portion) is called the inlet lip. A subsonic aircraft has an inlet with a relatively thick lip.

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Concerning turboprop engines, the intakes are much complicated by the propeller and
gearbox at the inlet to the engine.
Subsonic inlets have fixed geometry, although inlets for some high bypass ratio turbofan
engines are designed with blow-in-doors. These doors are spring-loaded parts installed in
the perimeter of the inlet duct designed to deliver additional air to the aero engine during
takeoff and climb conditions when the highest thrust is needed and the aircraft speed is low.
The most common type of subsonic intake is the pitot intake. This type of intakes makes
the fullest use of ram due to forward speed, and suffers the minimum loss of ram pressure
with changes of aircraft altitude.
However, as sonic speed is approached, the efficiency of this type of air intake begins to

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 fall because of the formation of a shock wave at the intake lip. It consists of a simple
forward entry hole with a cowl lip.
The three major types of pitot intakes as shown in Figure are as follows:
1) Podded intakes, 2) Integrated intake and 3) Flush intakes

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Subsonic Inlet Nomenclature:
The cross section of a typical subsonic inlet and its geometric parameters are shown in
Figure. The inlet area A1 , is based on the flow cross section at the inlet height.
It may be noted that the subsonic inlet can draw in airflow whose free-stream area A0 is
larger than the inlet area A1. Variable inlet geometry is not required (except sometimes
blow-in doors are used to reduce installation drag during takeoff).
The details in this section on subsonic inlets are based on a fixed-geometry inlet.
The operating conditions of an inlet depend on the flight velocity and mass flow
requirements.
Figure all shows the streamline pattern for three typical subsonic conditions.
Figure (a) shows acceleration of the fluid external to the inlet which will occur when the

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Subsonic Inlet Nomenclature

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inlet operates at a velocity lower than the design value or at a mass flow higher than the
design value.
Figure (b) show the configuration for correct mass flow for the design conditions.
Figure (c) shows deceleration of the fluid external to the inlet which will occur at a velocity
higher than design or a mass flow lower than design.

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Subsonic inlet during (a) Takeoff and (b) Cruise:
Diffuser:
The flow within the inlet is required to undergo diffusion in a divergent duct. This
reduction in flow velocity creates an increase in static pressure that interacts with the
boundary layer. If the pressure rise due to diffusion occurs more rapidly than turbulent
mixing can re-energize the boundary layer, the boundary layer will assume the
configurations shown in Figure.
If the flow in an inlet separates, the total and static pressures are reduced from their
corresponding nonseparated flow values.

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Flow Separation in Subsonic Inlets
Flow Separation in Subsonic Inlets:
As shown in figure, the rate of area increase in a diffuser has a direct effect on the behavior
of flow in the diffuser. If the rate of area increase is greater than that needed to keep the
boundary layer energized and attached, the flow may be characterized by unsteady zones of
stall.
The turbulent mixing is no longer able to overcome the pressure forces at all points in the
flow, and local separation occurs at some points.
The total pressure decreases markedly due to the irreversible mixing of a fairly large
portion of low-velocity fluid with the main flow. If the diffuser walls diverge rapidly, the
flow will separate completely and behave much as a jet, as shown in figure.(d).
The rate of area increase without stall for a diffuser depends on the characteristics of the

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flow at the entrance and on the length of the divergent section.
Figure shows the results for two-dimensional straight-walled diffusers. The results are for
incompressible flow, and they do not give a qualitatively valid indication of the sensitivity
of any diffuser to rapid divergence of flow area.
For the design of an optimum diffuser, research has shown that the boundary layer profile
should maintain a constant shape.
The boundary layer thickness will, of course, increase as the flow moves down the diffuser.
The stipulation of a constant shape for the boundary layer profile implies the assumption
that mixing re-energizes the profile at the same rate as the static pressure depletes it.

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The Role of Vortex Generator:

In the presence of an adverse pressure gradient (static pressure increasing in the

direction of flow), boundary layers tend to separate when the boundary layer is
not re-energized rapidly enough by turbulent mixing.
If vortices are generated by vortex generators in pairs, regions of inflow and
outflow exist.

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These carry high-energy air into the boundary layer and low-energy air out. Figure shows
how vortex generators re-energize a boundary layer.
By using vortex generators together with a short, wide-angle diffuser, it may be possible to
have a lower total pressure loss than with a long diffuser without vortex generators.
Here, the reduced skin friction losses associated with flow separation are traded against
vortex losses. The use of shorter diffusers may reduce weight and facilitate engine
installation.

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Subsonic Inlet Design Variables:
A list of the major design variables for the inlet and nacelle includes the following:
1) Inlet total pressure ratio and drag during cruise
2) Engine location on wing or fuselage
3) Aircraft attitude envelope
4) Inlet total pressure ratio and distortion levels required for engine operation
5) Engine-out wind milling airflow and drag
6) Integration of diffuser and fan flow path contour
7) Integration of external nacelle contour with thrust reverser and accessories
8) Flow field interaction between nacelle, pylon, and wing
9) Noise suppression requirements

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Performance Parameter:
Two parameters will be discussed here:
1. Isentropic efficiency (ηd)
2. Stagnation pressure ratio (rd)

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 Supersonic Intakes

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Supersonic Intakes:
The design of inlet systems for supersonic aircraft is a highly complex matter involving
engineering trade-offs between efficiency, complexity, weight, and cost.
A typical supersonic intake is made up of a supersonic diffuser, in which the flow is
decelerated by a combination of shocks and diffuse compression, and a subsonic diffuser,
which reduces the Mach number from high subsonic value after the last shock to the value
acceptable to the engine.
Subsonic intakes that have thick lip are quite unsuitable for supersonic speeds. The reason
is that a normal shock wave ahead of the intake is generated, which will yield a very sharp
static pressure rise without change of flow direction and correspondingly big velocity
reduction. The adiabatic efficiency of compression through a normal shock wave is very
low as compared with oblique shocks.
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Flight at supersonic speeds complicates the diffuser design for the
following reasons:
1) The existence of shock waves that lead to large decrease in stagnation pressure even in the
absence of viscous effects.
2) The large variation in capture stream tube area between subsonic and supersonic flight for
a given engine, as much as a factor of four between M∞ = 1 and M∞ = 3.
3) As M∞ increases, the inlet compression ratio becomes a larger fraction of the overall cycle
compression ratios and as a result, the specific thrust becomes more sensitive to diffuser
pressure ratio.
4) It must operate efficiently both during the subsonic flight phases (takeoff, climb, and
subsonic cruise) and at supersonic design speed.

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Generally, supersonic intake may be classified as follows:
1) Axisymmetric or two-dimensional intakes
2) Variable or fixed geometry
3) Internal, external or mixed compression

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Why Supersonic inlet as Reverse Nozzle Diffuser?

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Shock Swallow in Supersonic inlets:
Overspeeding of inlets
Varying throat inlets
Best back pressure fit.

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Shock Swallowing in Supersonic inlets

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Operations of Supersonic inlets

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Modes of Supersonic inlet operations

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Modes of Supersonic inlet operations

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Modes of Supersonic inlet operations

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