Jane-DoH
How many shockwaves does the concorde's inlet produce? I've been told it was like 3 or so, but looking at some diagrams it looks like there are 7... two stronger ones, three weaker ones, a bendy stronger one, a gap and then the terminal shock.
OK here we go:
1) The first shock was generated from the top lip of the intake
2) A second shock is generated from the fwd ramp hinge
3) A third isentropic fan shock is generated from the progressively
curved section of the fwd ramp
4) A 4th shock was generated fron the bottom lip
5) A terminal shock system is generated by the coalescence of
still supersonic and now subsonic air at the upper section of the ramp
area.
Hopefully these two diagrams will help. The first hand illustration above gives the 'theoretical' shock pattern and the second below gives an illustration of practical flows within the inlet. Both assume critical operation at Mach 2.
I hope all this blurb helps
Best regards
Dude
