Optimal supersonic intake design for air collection engines (ACE)

The success of Air Collection Engines (ACE) depends on the efficient integration of the many sub-systems involved. This article describes the tools developed to design a supersonic air intake of the mixed external/internal compression type that will feed the engine or the air liquefaction plant or both, during the different phases of the mission. One design procedure aims at finding the shape of minimum total pressure losses. An alternative strategy aims at designing intakes which attain prescribed Mach number and flow deviation at the throat. Two design points are selected and their off-design behavior is predicted by space- and time-marching CFD models. The CFD analyses eventually provide the performance charts of the air intakes.