Effect of corner rounding on the performance of the double offset Y-shaped aircraft intake duct

Abstract

A Y-shaped intake duct is a crucial component of a modern combat aircraft having a single engine. The flow analyses in these ducts have been done using renormalization group k- turbulence model. The present study attempts to demonstrate the effect of corner rounding on the performance and the flow characteristics of a double offset Y-shaped aircraft intake duct having a semi-elliptical inlet and a circular exit with an area ratio of 2, and uniform wall roughness. It is seen that the performance and the flow characteristics of the Y-shaped intake duct improve significantly with rounding of the sharp corners up to an arc radius ( r/ Dh) of 0.14.