Computational analysis of multi row disk inlet

This work presents the computational investigation of the Multi Row Disk Inlet design. The Multi Row Disk Inlet concept design by Hiroaki Kobayashi comprises of a tip cone and following disks. Centrebody geometry is variable by changing space between the disks, hence air compression ratio and mass capture ratio can be controlled independently of each other. To consider the effect of conical cavities on the flow field computations were performed using Gambit and Fluent. The computations were performed over various cavity configurations of the inlet. It was observed from the simulations that the boundary layer profile for different number of cavities did not vary significantly from the boundary layer profile of the reference inlet. The dominant factor affecting the boundary layer profile was the cavity length. Similarly, the boundary layer profile downstream of the cavities for the expanded body configuration did not vary significantly from that of the reference inlet. The static pressure rise at the rear wall of the conical cavity led to generation of flow vortices which may lead to instability.