One-equation turbulence models applied to practical scramjet inlet

Abstract Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations are used to simulate a practical scramjet inlet geometry using the shock-unsteadiness modified Spalart–Allmaras (SA) turbulence model. The geometry consists of fore-body ramps, expansion corners, and inlet ducts. The focus is to study the impingement of the cowl shock on the opposite wall boundary-layer. The resulting separation bubble can lead to blockage and inlet unstarts. The shock-unsteadiness correction is employed and is found to improve the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) prediction of flow separation in shock/boundary-layer interactions. The shock-unsteadiness parameter is calibrated against available experimental data of canonical flows, and the predicted flow-field is analyzed in detail. A large separation bubble size normalized to the upstream boundary-layer thickness of 4.6 is observed in the interaction region. Across the reattachment region in the interaction region, a peak value of wall pressure is observed. The inlet performance parameters are also calculated. The total pressure losses of 62% are observed across different shock waves, with an additional loss of 15% due to viscous boundary-layer effects.