Scale effects on turbulent boundary layer development and flow separation around V/STOL inlets at high incidence

Numerical methods for calculating laminar and turbulent boundary layers development around V/STOL engine inlets at high incidence angles, along with the procedures for predicting flow separation, are presented. Results of scale-effects, which are obtained by a numerical scaling procedure on the boundary layer characteristics and incidence angles at onset of separation are discussed. The interesting 'cross-over' phenomena, where the full-scale models actually exhibit earlier separation than the scaled-models, is illustrated for a typical V/STOL inlet at a certain operating condition. Some of the numerical results are compared with the existing wind-tunnel test data for a 1/6 scale inlet model to demonstrate the validity of the numerical approach.