Effect of control route on the unstart/restart characteristics of an over-under TBCC inlet

Numerical simulations have been conducted to study the unstart/restart characteristics of an over-under turbine-based combined-cycle propulsion system (TBCC) inlet during the inlet transition phase. A dual-solution area exists according to the Kantrowitz theory, in which the inlet states may be different even with the same input parameters. The entire transition process was divided into five stages and the unstart/restart hysteresis loop for each stage was also obtained. These loops construct a hysteresis surface which separates the operating space of the engine into three parts: in which a) inlet can maintain a started state; b) inlet keeps an unstarted state; c) inlet state depends on its initial state. During the transition, the operation of the engine follows a certain order with different backpressures and splitter angles, namely control route, which may result in disparate inlet states. Nine control routes with different backpressures and transition stages were designed to illuminate the route-dependent behavior of the inlet. The control routes operating towards the unstart boundary can make the inlet transit from a started state into an unstarted one. But operating backward the same route cannot make the inlet restart, additional effort should be made.