Optimal design of supersonic inlet considering uncertainty

The inlet performance of an air-breathing aircraft plays a key role in its cruise flight. The uncertainty and random disturbances in inflow conditions pose a challenge to the inlet performance. This paper conducts research on the optimal design of the supersonic inlet taking into account the uncertainty of the inflow to improve the robustness of the inlet performance. The polynomial chaos expansion method is used to conduct uncertainty analysis, and the expansion coefficient is obtained through the sparse grid point allocation method. Sensitivity analysis of the inflow uncertainty parameters is further conducted to determine the key influencing parameters. Finally, combined with uncertainty analysis and gradient-based optimization method, the supersonic inlet is optimized considering uncertainty. The results show that under the condition of inflow disturbance, in order to meet the flow requirements of the engine, the capture area of the uncertainty optimal design is larger than that of the deterministic optimal design. The optimization design method considering uncertainty can effectively improve the robustness of the inlet performance.