Flow simulation of a supersonic airplane with installed engine nacelle

Abstract

Abstract Flow fields around a supersonic aircraft with installed engine nacelles are simulated to study engine installation effects on the aerodynamic performance and ground sonic boom signature of the aircraft. The engine nacelle is a dual-stream nacelle composed of a relaxed isentropic compression supersonic inlet and an annular bypass duct around the core engine. Two different bypass duct shapes are considered here; one is a full three-dimensional configuration consisting of struts and a gearbox fairing, and the other is a simplified axisymmetric duct with equivalent area distribution to the original full three-dimensional configuration. The full 3-D and axisymmetric ducts are found to produce almost identical external shock patterns as expected, which confirms our previous vane shape design results. Representative airframe-propulsion interference cases are suggested, and configurations with different engine locations are simulated and identified according to the interference cases.