Abstract
The unstarted flow field in a hypersonic inlet model at a design point of Ma 6 is studied experimentally. The time⁃resolved spatial flow characteristics of the separation shock oscillation, which is induced by the unstarted flow, are analyzed based on a high⁃speed Schlieren system and an image processing method. The motion of the separation shock detected by the shock‑detection algorithm is compared to the results of fast‑response wall‑pressure measurements, and good agreement is demonstrated by comparing the frequency components in the power spectral density contours between shock oscillation and pressure fluctuation. The hysteresis of the pressure and separation shock during oscillation cycles is observed from the time history of the shock motion, which means that the unsteady flow pattern of the unstarted hypersonic flow can be accurately clarified by time⁃resolved Schlieren image processing. These results convincingly demonstrate that the shock⁃detection technique is successfully applied to an unstarted hypersonic flow case.
Supersonic combustion ramjet (scramjet) propulsion systems have been studied extensively over the past several decades for future air⁃breathing vehicle
When a hypersonic inlet is operating under the unstart condition, the internal flow in the scramjet engine will change the flow capturing characteristics of the inlet, and the separation shock in the external⁃compression flow field will oscillate (

Fig.1 Flow pattern of hypersonic inlet for the unstart condition
Most experimental studies on hypersonic unstarted flow are conducted mainly from two aspects: shock structures analysis by Schlieren technique and data time history/frequency analysis by dynamic wall pressur
In the present paper, we shall describe the Schlieren image⁃processing algorithm and shock⁃detection schemes in detail and then use those tools to exhibit the unsteady shock signal recorded in Schlieren images. Indeed, time–frequency analysis and shock⁃detection algorithms (which are commonly used in other domains but are almost unusual in the field of unstarted hypersonic inlet aerodynamics) could, in our opinion, be useful for many readers in their analytical works on unstarted hypersonic inlet flow.
The experiments are conducted in the Hypersonic wind tunnel of Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (NHW,

Fig.2 Hypersonic wind tunnel (NHW)

Fig.3 Schlieren and data acquisition system
The pressure measurement system consists of 16 Kulite XTEL⁃190 M fast⁃response transducers and data acquisition (DAQ) cards (National instruments PXIe 6358). The 16 transducers are mounted along the central line of the lower wall (

Fig.4 Test model in the wind tunnel
To keep the Schlieren flow visualization synchronized with the pressure signals, a synchronizer is used to trigger the camera and the DAQ pressure acquisition system simultaneously, and the motor is triggered after a delay of 5.6 s.
The test model is a three⁃dimensional hypersonic inlet (

Fig.5 Transducer installation locations and throttling device
A non⁃dimensional variable is defined to measure the effect of throttling, which can be illustrated as
(1) |
(2) |
(3) |
where represents the area size that flow can cross the outlet effectively, and is the total area of the outlet. The plug driven by a stepper motor that can move 0.01 mm per step ensures an accurate control system.
In the current experiment, the inlet is designed at Ma 6 based on a combination flow field. According to the study conducted by You et a

Fig.6 Hypersonic inlet in the current test
Due to the restricted area size of the Schlieren window and the opaque side panel, the current study mainly focuses on external flow field. To obtain the motion features of the unstarted separation shock, a quantization method is presented in this paper. It is necessary to introduce this method in detail before acquiring the flow characteristics of the separation shock motion.
The high speed camera used in the test can operate during a usable run time of 6 s at a frame rate of 5 kHz (600 pixel×438 pixel), and 30 000 Schlieren images could be taken in one case. Therefore, the dynamic flow structures can be recorded by image gray scale, and the quantization method is proposed based on the gray level detection. The key steps of the method include state judgment of the flow (start or unstart), separation boundary localization, accuracy judgment and output of the variables (

Fig.7 Process of the quantization method
The amount of data from all of the Schlieren images is huge, and the costs in computing resources and time will be too great if every image is employed in the separation boundary localization. Actually, the flow field wherein separation shock does not appear does not need to be calculated. Therefore, the state judgment step is important to the quantization method.
The picture is treated as a gray level matrix
,
is defined to represent the started flow field (

Fig.8 Typical flow structures in Schlieren images
The matrix is defined to measure the difference between and , which is
(4) |
where i=1,2,…,M,j=1,2,…,N, which is the same as in the following Eqs.(4,5,7,8). In fact, even in the started flow, two pictures cannot be identical, which is related to the noise level caused by the wind tunnel and camera. Consequently, finding one image that represents the relatively steady initial started flow is difficult. In the current study , filtering methods such as median filtering and average filtering have been tested to weaken the influence of noise, but the results are not as expected. In this quantization method, pictures of started flow are chosen for the relatively steady started flow calculation, and can be obtained as
(5) |
The value of is defined to measure the noise level of the started flow field, which is
(6) |
(7) |
(8) |
where
is the variance level, and
is the average level of the
pictures. Therefore,
is determined by the average and variance of the noise. A typical vertical line
located in the intersection between the side and bottom walls is chosen to judge the flow field state. As shown in
(9) |
where is defined to measure the state judgment level, and the value is the maximum of among the n pictures of started flow. Therefore, under the actual free stream flow conditions
Started flow
Unstarted flow(10)
It should be noted that the started flow here is the state of instantaneous start and just represents that the separation shock does not appear. Consequently, whether it is the start of an arbitrary Schlieren image can be judged by one value of .
When a separation shock appears, its boundary is located in the positive value position of . To save computational resources, the picture is split by , and only the left part is calculated. The represents one of the vectors in , where , is the x coordinate, and is the position of . is the highest y coordinate in that exceeds the noise level.
(11) |
(12) |
where is the relaxation factor of accuracy, which will be discussed in the next step. Therefore, is the separation shock boundary height. The function is defined to describe the central line of the bottom wall, and this function is a given condition. and must satisfy the inequality , and therefore, some of the upstream points should be dropped when the separation point is in the Schlieren image region. m 0 is defined to represent the lower limit of m, which is
(13) |
where
;
is a factor used to control the dropping level and is related to the noise, contrast ratio and window size. In current testing, according to practice and experience,
should be set to 0.2. As shown in

Fig.9 Boundary line of the separation shock located by the quantization method
Then, the function of separation shock can be calculated by the least squares method, which is
(14) |
(15) |
It is obvious that the localization points should present strong linearity and relevance, whereas the correlation coefficient will decrease if there were too many error points. Therefore, the correlation coefficient r is chosen to judge the accuracy. r is calculated by
(16) |
where , and . In the current test, r is set to r 0=0.97. The separation shock boundary can be located by the gray level difference vector y m,N mentioned above, and the localization accuracy is determined by . is set to initially and will be adjusted adaptively if it does not satisfy the accuracy. z is defined to control the value of .
(17) |
z is set to 0.1 in this test, and the next step will be taken while r>r 0. A program based on C++ code is run to calculate the separation shock from all the pictures. For the accuracy detection, a function to dye the boundary of separation shock is added to the code. By running the program, the separation shock boundary is marked with red lines, and endpoints are marked with square symbols autonomously, so that the deviation of localization can be observed intuitively. Fig.10 shows the contrast between the original and calculated pictures of shock oscillation during one cycle, whose results prove the accuracy and efficiency of this program code.
For the detailed description of separation shock, four parameters are adopted in the present study (

Fig.10 Localization and dyeing results of separation shock after program running

Fig.11 Descriptive parameters of separation shock
The four variables can be calculated by
(18) |
It should be noted that if the separation point is outside the picture (

Fig.12 Calculation of the separation point
The free stream flow conditions for the current experiment are listed in
Ma | Total temperature /K | Total pressure /kPa | Usable run time /s |
---|---|---|---|
6 | 378—421 | 600—640 | >7 |
The motion of the separation shock is described by the quantization method mentioned above, and the data characteristics of the time history are collected, including x, v, β and h. The separation point position x reflects the size of the separation region’s area. v is the velocity of the separation motion. β represents the strength of the separation shock, and h represents the amplitude of the shock oscillation.
During this test, it is found that the occurrence of separation shock oscillation in the cowl area presents various characteristics depending on Δ. To obtain the separation shock at different Δ completely, Δ is set to 0 (started flow of inlet) initially when the internal and external flow field of the inlet is established, and the plug then begins to move upstream at a speed of 10 mm/s.

Fig.13 Time history of the shock motion parameters and dynamic pressure of the T 11 signal

Fig.14 Power spectral density contours
Stage 1
t=0—2.15 s with
<35.83%. In this stage, a shock train is produced in the isolator with growing back pressure by throttling.

Fig.15 Pressure time history at typical survey points

Fig.16 Power spectral density of T 1
Stage 2
t=2.15 s—3.86 s with
=35.83%—64.33%. A typical time segment t=2—2.5 s is show in

Fig.17 Partial time history and Schlieren images

Fig.18 Hysteresis of pressure and separation shock during the first cycle
Stage 3
t=3.86—6 s with Δ>64.33%. A typical time segment of t=5.6—5.7 s is shown in

Fig.19 Partial time history and Schlieren images
In this flow structure, the separation point can reach the leading edge, and the separation bubble spreads to the entire bottom wall. Then the leading edge shock disappears and is replaced by a separation shock. Fig.20 shows the pressure time history of four typical survey points. The T 13—T 16 signal pressures show strong correlation, and their fluctuation amplitudes increase obviously in comparison with stage 2.

Fig.20 Pressure time history of typical survey points
In the present study, a hypersonic inlet model is tested in a Ma 6 free stream in a hypersonic wind tunnel. The inlet unstart phenomenon in external flow is the primary focus. During the test, the unstarted flow is generated by a continuously increasing throttling device at the exit of the isolator. A high speed Schlieren system and fast response pressure transducers are used to obtain the dynamic flow structure. From the analysis of Schlieren images and dynamic pressure, some novel methods are proposed, and the following conclusions are obtained.
The method of image quantization of Schlieren photographs is practical, and a dynamic flow structure can be shown in detail by catching the features of separation shock in the pictures. More information about shock than wall pressure can be obtained. By using this method, the unsteady flow pattern of the unstarted hypersonic flow is clarified based on time⁃resolved Schlieren images of separation shock.
In the present experiment, the basic frequencies of shock oscillations and pressure fluctuations in unstarted flow range from 50 Hz to 110 Hz, and the second harmonic frequencies are 100 Hz to 220 Hz. The frequency components have an obvious increase with the continuously increasing throttling, but they will remain relatively stable when the separation shock amplitude reaches the position of the leading edge shock and intersects each other upstream.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (Nos. 51776096 and 51476076) and a Project Funded by the Priority Academic Program Development of Jiangsu Higher Education Institutions (PAPD).Authors Prof. WANG Chengpeng is currently a professor at Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (NUAA). His research interests include high speed aerodynamics, experimental aerodynamics and wind tunnel experimental technique.Mr. WANG Wenshuo is currently a postgraduate of NUAA. His research interests include experimental aerodynamics and wind tunnel experimental technique.Dr. XUE Longsheng received his Ph.D degree in NUAA in 2019. His research interests are focused on include high speed aerodynamics and wind tunnel experimental technique.Mr. XU Pei received his M.S. in NUAA in 2019. His research interests are focused on experimental aerodynamics and wind tunnel experimental technique.Mr. YANG Jinfu is currently a postgraduate at NUAA. His research interest is focused on high speed aerodynamics.
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare no competing interests.
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