Investigating the Effects of Vortex Generator Geometry on NACA Inlet Performance

Abstract

The NACA inlet is a submerged inlet that is widely used in aviation. It has the advantages of low drag and low radar cross-section. One of the considerations in using the NACA inlet is the low-pressure recovery compared to other types of inlets. To improve the pressure recovery of the NACA inlet, it can be done by controlling the boundary layer thickness in the upstream of the NACA inlet. This study aims to investigate the effect of the use and geometric parameters of vortex generators on the improvement of the performance of the NACA inlet. The geometric parameters that will be varied are height, angle of incidence, and distance between vortex generators. Various configurations will be simulated numerically with ANSYS Fluent using the k-ω SST turbulence model. The results indicate that the use of vortex generators can increase the Ram recovery ratio by 31.23% and the Mass flow ratio by 14.74%. The most effective vortex generator height to use depends on the local boundary layer thickness. The effective angle of incidence and spacing of the vortex generator were obtained at 20 degrees and 20 mm, respectively. These results indicate that there are effective angles and spacings in the vortex generator configuration to improve the performance of the NACA inlet.