Flow in a mixed compression intake with linear and quadratic elements

V M Krushnarao Kotteda
1
and Sanjay Mittal
2,
Department of Aerospace Engineering
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Kanpur, U P , 208016
1
muralik@iitk.ac.in,
2
smittal@iitk.ac.in
Abstract
Numerical simulation of the ow in a two-dimensional mixed compression intake is carried out by solving
unsteady viscous compressible equations using a stabilized nite element method. The Spalart-Allmaras (SA)
model is used for turbulence closure. Boundary layer bleed is used to control the ow separation and overcome
the start-up problem. Computations are carried out with 3-noded and 6-noded triangular elements. Viscous
ow in a Y-shaped diusing duct is simulated with 3-noded triangular elements. Computations are carried out
for various back pressure ratios.
Keywords: intakes, linear and quadratic interpolation, start-up, instability, bleed
1 Introduction
Air intakes [1] form a very vital component of any aircraft engine. They are expected to provide sucient
amount of air at low speed to the combustor/engine face with relatively low distortion to sustain continuous
combustion. For ight Mach number greater than 2.5, a mixed-compression inlet (MCI) is often used. In the
sub-critical regime, the normal shock is pushed in the convergent part of the intake. In such a state, the normal
shock can be expelled out and the intakeunstarts. The air intake is also associated with the buzz [2] instability
during its sub-critical operation. It adversely aects the mass ow entering the engine and may lead to combustion
instability, engine surge and ame out. The geometry of the inlet is very similar to the one experimentally studied
by Anderson and Wong [3].
A Y-shaped intake duct is a critical component of a single-engine modern ghter aircraft. These intakes
mounted on a fuselage are used in most of the modern combat aircrafts. The intake ducts have to meet the
varying ow demands of the engines because these aircrafts have to perform highly complicated maneuvers.
2 The governing equations
Let be the spatial domain and x and t denote the spatial and temporal coordinates. The Navier-Stokes equations
governing the uid ow, in the conservation form, are given as:

t
+

x
i
(u
i
) = 0, (1)

t
(u
i
) +

x
j
(u
j
u
i
) =
p
x
i
+

ji
x
j
, (2)

t
_

_
e +
1
2
u
i
u
i
__
+

x
j
_
u
j
_
h +
1
2
u
i
u
i
__
=
q
j
x
j
+

x
j
(u
i

ij
), (3)
where , u, p, , e, h and q are the density, velocity, pressure, viscous stress tensor, total energy per unit mass,
enthalpy per unit mass and heat ux vector, respectively. The viscous stress tensor, , is dened as

ij
=
_
u
i
x
j
+
u
j
x
i
_
+
u
k
x
k

ij
, (4)
where is the coecient of viscosity and
ij
is the Kronecker delta. It is assumed that is related to by the
Stokes hypothesis as =
2
3
. The total energy per unit mass is dened as e = c
v
where is the temperature
and c
v
is the specic heat at constant volume. The enthalpy per unit mass is dened as h = c
p
where c
p
is the
specic heat at constant pressure. The uid is assumed to be calorically perfect. The equation of state, for the
ideal gas, is p = R where R is the ideal gas constant. Assuming the medium to be isotropic, the heat ux vector
is related to the temperature gradient as q
j
=

xj
, where is the heat conductivity. The Prandtl number,
P
r
=
cp

, relates the heat conductivity to the uid viscosity, and is assumed to be a constant (= 0.72). The
coecient of dynamic viscosity, , depends on the temperature and is assumed to follow the Sutherlands law.
2.1 Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes equations (RANS) and the Spalart-Allmaras
(SA) model for turbulence closure
Application of the Favre mass-averaging to equations (1)-(3) results in the Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes
equations:

t
+

x
i
( u
i
) = 0, (5)

t
( u
i
) +

x
j
( u
j
u
i
) =
p
x
i
+

x
j
(
ji
u

i
u

j
), (6)

t
_

_
e +
1
2
u
i
u
i
_
+
u

i
u

i
2
_
=

x
j
_
u
j
_

h +
1
2
u
i
u
i
_
+ u
j
u

i
u

i
2
_
+

x
j
_
q
j
u

j
h

_
+

x
j
( u
i
(
ij
u

i
u

j
).
(7)
Here, the over-bar () and over-tilde () represent the Reynolds averaging and Favre mass-averaging, respectively.
The equation of state and the constitutive relations are modied as:
p = R

, e = c
v

,

h = c
p

, q
j
=

x
j
. (8)
The turbulent heat ux vector is dened as:
q
tj
= u

j
h

t
c
p
P
t
r

x
j
=

t
P
t
r

h
x
j
, (9)
where P
t
r
is the turbulent Prandtl number and is assumed to be a constant (= 0.90) in this work. The Boussinesq
approximation with suitable generalization for compressible ows is used to model the Reynolds stress tensor. It
is dened as:

R
ij
= u

i
u

j
= 2
t
_
s
ij

1
3
u
k
x
k

ij
_

2
3
k
t

ij
, (10)
where k
t
is the turbulence kinetic energy and
t
is the turbulent viscosity. We utilize the Spalart-Allmaras (SA)
turbulence model [4] for closure. It is a one equation model and is applicable to a wide range of engineering
problems such as free shear ows, mixing layers and wall bounded ows. It is capable of representing a smooth
transition from a laminar to turbulent state. The model represents the time evolution of the kinetic eddy viscosity,
. It is related to
t
via the relation
t
= f
v1
. The transport equation for is:

t
+

x
j
( u
j
) L
1

_

x
j
_
( + )

x
j
__
= 0, (11)
where
L = c
b1
[(1 f
t2
)S] +
c
b2

_

x
j
__

x
j
_
+
_
c
w1
f
w
+
c
b1

2
f
t2
+
c
b1

2
(1 f
t2
) f
v2
_
_

d
_
2
+ f
t1
(U)
2
. (12)
Here, d is the minimum distance between the eld point and the solid surface and U is the dierence between
velocity at the eld point and the trip. The closure constants and auxiliary relations for the model are identical
to those suggested by Spalart and Allmaras [4]:
c
b1
= 0.1355, c
b2
= 0.622, c
v1
= 7.1,

= 0.41,
c
t1
= 1, c
t2
= 2, c
t3
= 1.2, c
t4
= 0.5, =
2
3
,
c
w1
=
c
b1

2
+
(1+c
b2
)

, c
w2
= 0.3, c
w3
= 2,
=

, S =
_
2S
ij
S
ij
,

S = S +

2
d
2
f
v2
,
f
v1
=

3

3
+c
3
v1
, f
v2
= 1

1+fv1
,
r =

S
2
d
2
, g = r + c
w2
_
r
6
r
_
, f
w
= g
_
1+c
6
w3
g
6
+c
6
w3
_1
6
, g
t
= min
_
0.1,
U
txt
_
,
f
t1
= c
t1
g
t
exp
_
c
t2

2
t
(U)
2
_
d
2
+ (g
t
d
t
)
2

_
, f
t2
= c
t3
e
ct4
2
.
Here, x
t
is the grid spacing along the solid surface at the trip,
t
is the vorticity at the trip, and d
t
is the distance
from the eld point to the trip.
We note that barring the approximations (9)(10), the RANS equations (5)(7), retain the form of the equations
for the laminar ow with the following two modications:
+
t
, (13)

P
r

P
r
+

t
P
t
r
. (14)
For laminar ows,
t
= 0.
2.2 The Quasi-linear form of ow equations
The ow equations (1)-(3) can be rewritten in the following form:
U
t
+
F
i
x
i

E
i
x
i
= 0 on (0, T), (15)
where U = (, u
1
, u
2
, e) is the vector of conservation variables in two dimensions. F
i
and E
i
are the Euler and
viscous ux vectors, respectively, dened as
F
i
= (u
i
, u
i
u
1
+
i1
p, u
i
u
2
+
i2
p, u
i
(e + p))
T
, (16)
E
i
= (0,
i1
,
i2
, q
i
+
ik
u
k
)
T
. (17)
Equation (15) is rewritten in a quasi-linear form:
U
t
+A
i
U
x
i

x
i
_
K
ij
U
x
j
_
= 0 on (0, T), (18)
where A
i
=
Fi
U
, is the Euler Jacobian matrix, and K
ij
is the diusivity matrix satisfying K
ij
U
xj
= E
i
.
3 Finite element formulation
3.1 Flow equations
Consider a nite element discretization of the domain into sub-domains
e
, e = 1, 2, 3, . . . , n
el
, where n
el
is
the number of elements. The trial and weight function spaces, S
h
and V
h
, are selected by taking the Dirichlet
boundary condition into account, as subsets of [H
nh
()]
n
dof
. Here, H
nh
() is the nite dimensional function space
over , formed with polynomials of order n. n
dof
represents the number of degrees of freedom. The function
spaces are dened as:
S
h
= {U
h
|U
h
[H
nh
()]
n
dof
, U
h
e
m
.
= g
m
on
gm
}, (19)
V
h
= {W
h
|W
h
[H
nh
()]
n
dof
, W
h
e
m
.
= 0 on
gm
}, (20)
where m = 1, 2, . . . , n
dof
.
The stabilized nite-element formulation of equation (18) is given as follows: nd U
h
S
h
: W
h
V
h
the
following is satised
_

W
h

_
U
h
t
+A
h
i
U
h
x
i
_
d +
_

_
W
h
x
i
_

_
K
h
ij
U
h
x
j
_
d
+
n
el

e=1
_

e
(A
h
k
)
T
_
W
h
x
k
_

_
U
h
t
+A
h
i
U
h
x
i

x
i
_
K
h
ij
U
h
x
j
__
d
+
n
el

e=1
_

_
W
h
x
i
_

_
U
h
x
i
_
d =
_

h
W
h
h
h
d. (21)
In the variational formulation given by Eq. (21), the rst two terms together with the right-hand side term
constitute the Galerkin formulation of the problem. The rst series of element level integrals in Eq. (21) are the
SUPG stabilization terms added to the variational formulation to stabilize the computations against node-to-
node spatial oscillations in the advection dominated ows. We note that the SUPG stabilization involves second
order derivatives. These are zero for the 3-noded linear element. This is expected to play a major role in the
superiority of the solution obtained with quadratic shape functions in the region of large velocity gradients where
viscous terms are important. The second series of element level integrals in the formulation given by Eq. (21) are
the shock capturing terms that stabilize the computations in the presence of sharp gradients. The stabilization
coecients [5] are dened as
= max(0,
a

), (22)

a
=
_
_
2u
h
e
_
2
+
_
12
h
2
e
_
2
_

1
2
I, (23)

=

2(c +u)
2
I, (24)
=
_
_
_
U
h
t
+A
i
U
h
xi

xi
_
K
h
ij
U
h
xj
__
A
1
0
_
U
h
t
+A
j
U
h
xj

xj
_
K
h
ij
U
h
xj
__

l
xj
U
h
xj
A
1
0

l
x
k
U
h
x
k
_
_
1
2
. (25)
Here h
e
is the element length. The denition of h
e
based on the minimum edge length for a linear element is
employed in the present work. For the quadratic elements, one half of the minimum edge length of the triangle is
used.
A
1
0
is the inverse of Reimannian metric tensor related to the transformation between the conservation and
entropy variables. The matrix

is subtracted from
a
to account for the shock-capturing term as shown in
Eq. (22). The application of this formulation to compute various internal and external ows can be found in our
earlier article [5].
3.2 Turbulence model
The stabilized nite-element formulation of equation (11) is given as follows: nd
h
S
h
: W
h
V
h
the
following is satised
_

W
h
_

t
(
h

h
) +

x
j
_

h

h
u
h
j
_
L
h
_
d +
_

_
W
h
x
j
_
_

h
( +
h
)

h
x
j
_
d
+
n
el

e=1
_

SA
u
h
j
_
W
h
x
j
_
_

t
(
h

h
) +

x
j
_

h

h
u
h
j
_
L
h
_
d
e

n
el

e=1
_

e
1

SA
u
h
j
_
W
h
x
j
_

x
j
_

h
( + )

x
j
_
d
e
=
_

h
W
h
( +
h
)h
h
d, (26)
where h
h
=
h
n (= 0). The rst two terms together with the right-hand side term in Eq. (26) constitute
the Galerkin formulation of the problem. The next two series of terms that involve element level integrals in Eq.
(26) are the SUPG stabilization terms. We note that the second series of element integrals involving second order
terms in Eq. (26) do not contribute when linear elements are utilized. The stabilization parameter,
SA
, is dened
as:

SA
=
_
_
2u
h

h
max
_
2
+
_
12
h
2
min
_
2
_

1
2
. (27)
Here, h
max
and h
min
are the maximum and minimum edge lengths of the element, respectively. The time
discretization of the variational formulation given by Eqs. (21) and (26) is done via the generalized trapezoidal
rule. The nonlinear equation systems resulting from the nite-element discretization of the ow equations are solved
using the Generalized Minimal RESidual (GMRES) technique in conjunction with block- diagonal preconditioners.
Results and discussions
The free stream Mach number of ow entering the intake is 3.0 and the Reynolds number, based on the length
of the intake is 10
6
. Computations are carried out with 6%bleed using 3-noded and 6-noded triangular elements.
The back pressure (p
b
/p
i
) is applied at the exit of the duct and progressively increased to study the ow for
various values of p
b
/p
i
. As the p
b
/p
i
is increased further the intake is pushed in a sub-critical state and leads to
one of the two cases. In the rst case the intake is unstarted. In the second situation, big buzz instability have
been observed. Figure 1 shows the ow in the MCI with p
b
/p
i
= 11.2. Unstarted intake at p
b
/p
i
= 12.6 is seen in
Figure 2. Started intake is observed at p
b
/p
i
= 12.6 for quadratic elements. It is shown in Figure 3. The location
of trip for transition of the ow, from a laminar to turbulent state, is specied on the ramp, lower cowl and upper
cowl surface. Started intake is observed at p
b
/p
i
= 12.6 for linear and quadratic elements with SA model. The
ow in a mixed compression intake with SA model for linear and quadratic elements are shown in Figure 4 and
Figure 5, respectively.
The free stream Mach number of ow entering Y-shaped duct is 1.5. The Reynolds number, based on the
height of the duct at the inlet, speed and viscosity of the free stream, is 110
5
. No turbulence model is used. The
computations are initiated with free stream conditions in the entire domain. First, the ow is computed for the
situation when the outow is supersonic and no condition on back-pressure exists. The ow is utilized to carry
out computations for various values of p
b
/p
i
. The shock moves upstream as the p
b
/p
i
increases. The ow in a
Y-shaped intake at various time instants for p
b
/p
i
= 1.68 is shown in Figure 6. The shock oscillates inside the
duct. The shock oscillates in the intake duct for p
b
/p
i
< 2.52. The ow in the Y-shaped intake at p
b
/p
i
= 2.52
is shown in Figure 7. The shock moves towards the inlet in the rst two rows. The moment of the shock inside
the intake is seen in the third and last row. The ow in the intake at p
b
/p
i
= 2.8 is shown in Figure 8. The
shock moves towards the inlet and travel towards the duct and stays at the leading edge of the ramp. It can be
seen in the gure. The ow inside the duct is subsonic for p
b
/p
i
2.8 because of the bow shock upstream of the
intake duct. The variation of the time-averaged mass ow rate at merger section with p
b
/p
i
is shown in Figure
9. Oscilations in the ow are observed for p
b
/p
i
2.52. The intake unstarts for p
b
/p
i
> 3.64. The total pressure
recovery (TPR) and distortion index at the duct exit (x = 2) for various p
b
/p
i
is shown in Figure 10. The TPR
increases with p
b
/p
i
. DI decreases with p
b
/p
i
upto p
b
/p
i
= 3.52.
Conclusions
The viscous ow in a mixed compression intake in two dimensions has been studied via a stabilized nite element
method. The free stream Mach number of the ow entering the intake is 3 and the Reynolds number, based on
the length of the intake, is 110
6
. The computational domain includes the supersonic diuser, throat section,
subsonic diuser and a duct to assist in the modifying of application of back pressure. Bleed is utilized to control
the boundary layer separation and overcome the start-up problem. A minimum of 6% bleed, of the captured mass
ow rate, is required upstream of the throat to start the intake. Computations have been carried out with 6%
bleed with linear and quadratic elements. SA model is used for turbulence closure. The back pressure is applied
at the downstream end of the duct and progressively increased to study the ow for various values of p
b
/p
i
. As
the back pressure is increased the normal shock moves upstream towards the throat. At the critical condition it
is located at the throat of the intake, at least in a time-averaged sense. Further increase in the back pressure
pushes the intake to sub-critical state and leads to one of the two situations. In the rst case the normal shock
is completely expelled out of the intake leading to spillage of ow over the cowl and unstarting of intake. In the
Mach number Vorticity
-0.1
0.0
0.1
0.2
44 45 46 47
m
t
t
0
1
2
3
44 45 46 47
p
/
p
i
t
t = 44.8
t = 44.7
t = 45.0
t = 45.1
t = 45.2
t = 45.3
Figure 1: M

= 3, Re = 10
6
, p
b
/p
i
= 11.2 ow in the air intake at various time instants during one big buzz cycle
with 6% bleed and 3-noded triangular elements. Also shown are time histories of the pressure at a point located
at (0.2, 0.1) and the mass ow rate at the throat. The time instants at which the ow is shown are marked on
these plots.
second situation, buzz is observed. This corresponds to oscillation of the normal shock as well as the ow in the
convergent part of the intake. It is also associated with cyclic lling and discharging of the intake.
The high frequency and large amplitude oscillations are observed with linear elements at p
b
/p
i
= 11.2. These
are referred to as big buzz and provoke due to pressure pulses from the subsonic portion of the intake. The ow
process is similar to Dailey type of buzz [2]. The ow in a MCI with SA model for linear and quadratic elements
is same. Dierences in the ow are observed with linear and quadratic elements.
References
[1] E L Goldsmith, J Seddon. Intake Aerodynamics AIAA, 1999.
[2] C L Dailey. Supersonic diuser instability. Journal of the Aeronautical Sciences, 22:733749, 1955.
-0.15
-0.10
-0.05
0.00
25 27 29 31 33 35
m
t
t
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0
25 27 29 31 33 35
p
/
p
i
t
t = 30.0
Figure 2: M

= 3, Re = 10
6
, p
b
/p
i
= 12.6 ow in the air intake with 6% bleed and 3-noded triangular elements.
Also shown are time histories of the pressure at a point located at (0.2, 0.1) and the mass ow rate at the throat.
The time instants at which the ow is shown are marked on these plots.
0.31
0.32
0.33
65 67 69 71 73
m
t
t
4.10
4.15
4.20
65 67 69 71 73
p
/
p
i
t
t = 73.8
Figure 3: M

= 3, Re = 10
6
, p
b
/p
i
= 12.6 ow in the air intake with 6% bleed and 6-noded triangular elements.
Also shown are time histories of the pressure at a point located at (0.2, 0.1) and the mass ow rate at the throat.
The time instant at which the ow is shown are marked on these plots.
0.31
0.32
0.33
90 92 94 96 98 100 102
m
t
t
4.10
4.15
4.20
90 92 94 96 98 100 102
p
/
p
i
t
t = 100.0
Figure 4: M

= 3, Re = 10
6
, p
b
/p
i
= 12.6 ow in the air intake with 6% bleed 3-noded triangular elements. The
location of the trips for transition modeling is specied on the ramp, lower cowl and upper cowl surface. Also
shown are time histories of the pressure at a point located at (0.2, 0.1) and the mass ow rate at the throat. The
time instant at which the ow is shown are marked on these plots.
[3] W E Anderson and N D Wong. Experimental investigation of a large-scale, two-dimensional, mixed-
compression inlet system performance at design conditions, M

= 3.0. Technical Report NASA TM

X-2016, NASA Ames Research Center, 1970.
[4] P R Spalart, S R Allmaras. One-equation turbulence model for aerodynamic ows. AIAA-92-0439 1992.
0.31
0.32
0.33
57 59 61 63 65 67
m
t
t
4.10
4.15
4.20
57 59 61 63 65 67
p
/
p
i
t
t = 66.47
Figure 5: M

= 3, Re = 10
6
, p
b
/p
i
= 12.6 ow in the air intake with 6% bleed and 6-noded triangular elements.
The location of the trips for transition modeling is specied on the ramp, lower cowl and upper cowl surface. Also
shown are time histories of the pressure at a point located at (0.2, 0.1) and the mass ow rate at the throat. The
time instants at which the ow is shown are marked on these plots.
Mach number Vorticity
t = 5
t = 9
t = 12
t = 13
Figure 6: M

= 1.5, Re = 10
5
, p
b
/p
i
= 1.68 ow in a Y-shaped intake duct with 3-noded triangular elements.
[5] S Mittal. Finite element computation of unsteady viscous compressible ows. Computer Methods in Applied
Mechanics and Engineering, 157:151175, 1998.
t = 8.5
t = 9.5
t = 7.0
t = 5.0
t = 18.0
Figure 7: M

= 1.5, Re = 10
5
, p
b
/p
i
= 2.52 ow in a Y-shaped intake duct with 3-noded triangular elements.
t = 2.0
t = 23.0
Figure 8: M

= 1.5, Re = 10
5
, p
b
/p
i
= 2.80 ow in a Y-shaped intake duct with 3-noded triangular elements.
-0.1
0.0
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.4
1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5
m
f
p
b
/p
i
Figure 9: M

= 1.5, Re = 10
5
ow in a Y-shaped intake duct with 3-noded triangular elements: The variation of
the time-averaged mass ow rate at merger section with p
b
/p
i
.
0.6
0.7
0.8
0.9
1.0
1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5
T
P
R
p
b
/p
i
0.0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1.0 1.5 2.0 2.5 3.0 3.5 4.0 4.5
D
I
p
b
/p
i
Figure 10: M

= 1.5, Re = 10
5
ow in a Y-shaped intake with 3-noded triangular elements: variation of the
TPR and DI with p
b
/p
i
for the time-averaged ow.