Inlet/body integration, is one of the most demanding stages in the aerodynamic design of high speed airbreathing propulsion systems. In supersonic and hypersonic flight regimes, the performance of inlet is heavily affected by the thick layer of upstream flow with low kinetic energy. Protecting the flow captured by the inlet from this layer is a difficult challenge for flight vehicle designers. Not only the classic diverters are difficult to be applied in such high speed condition, but also the newly applied bump surfaces still faced some serious problems in high Mach numbers. In this paper a new forebody concept for redirecting the boundary layer has been presented. The concept, called Ridge, is an aerodynamic surface, involves a pressure gap and a vortex to redirect the boundary layer. Ridge geometry can be used for optimal inlet/vehicle integration platform in wide range of speeds. The performance of the ridge has been proven by a series of highly accurate numerical simulations for different profiles in different Mach numbers. According to these simulations, not only a clean entrance from the boundary layer, but also a significant reduction in the total height of the inlet has been resulted. The new surface has shown a great potential to integrate or combine with different aerodynamic geometries and cover a wide range of Mach numbers. This research has focused on the numerical simulation results to show the possibility and performance of the new design to cover inlet and compression surface applications.
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