On the question of starting conditions for frontal axisymmetric inlets tested in hot-shot wind tunnels

The work presents the results of an analysis of starting conditions for some frontal axisymmetric inlets of internal compression tested at freestream Mach numbers М = 3?8.4 in the hot-shot wind tunnels based at Khristianovich Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics (ITAM). The results of these inlets test are compared with the data of numerical computations of inviscid, laminar, and turbulent flows carried out by the pseudo-unsteady method. There were determined the inlet throat areas limiting either with regard to the inlet starting or with regard to providing the maximally possible degree of geometric compression of the inlet-captured supersonic airstream at its deceleration in the already started inlet. Reshaping of computed flow patterns in the inlets depending on the variation of the minimal cross section of the inlet internal duct is analyzed.