Scramjet Engine
Supersonic Combustion Ramjet Engine
PRESENTED BY:
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Institute of Aeronautical
Ramjet Engine
The incoming supersonic airflow is slowed to
subsonic speeds by multiple shock waves, created by
back-pressuring the engine.
This subsonic flow undergoes combustion and
accelerates through a narrow throat, or mechanical
choke, to supersonic speeds.
Scramjet Engine
In Scramjet, airflow is decelerated by oblique shock
wave emanated from forebody and undergoes
combustion at supersonic speeds & accelerates to
hypersonic speeds without any choking mechanism.
Airflow in Scramjet remains supersonic throughout
the combustion process
principle of scramjet operation
Why Supersonic Combustion?
In Ramjet Engine
The air flow initially slowdown to subsonic and
speedup to supersonic, is highly waste of energy.
Deceleration of airflow- decreases the K.E and
increases the internal energy with increase in
pressure, density and temperature.
At higher speeds, (M>6) this effect becomes so
pronounced that it is no longer advantageous to
decelerate the flow to subsonic speeds.
These Adverse consequences includes
High pressures to structural design.
Losses due to normal shockwave system
Excessive wall heat transfer rates.
Adverse combustion conditions where chemical
energy dissociation takes place.
The scramjet is intended to deal with these problems
by allowing for supersonic airflow through the entire
engine.
Scramjet engine
The scramjet engine occupies entire lower surface of
vehicle body.
Propulsion system of scramjet engine
Components of Scramjet Engine
1. Engine components
a. Internal inlet
b. Isolator
c. Combustor
d. Internal nozzle and
e. Fuel supply subsystems
2. Vehicle components
a. Fore body, for air induction
b. Aft body, a critical component of nozzle
Air induction system
It consists of :
a. Forebody
b. Internal inlet
The Forebody provides the initial external compression
and contributes to the drag and moments of the vehicle.
The Internal inlet compression provides the final
compression of the propulsion cycle.
The air in the captured stream tube undergoes a
reduction in Mach number with an attendant
increase in pressure and temperature as it passes
through the system of shock waves in the fore body
and internal inlet.
Scramjet Air Induction
Phenomena Include
Vehicle bow shock
Isentropic turning Mach waves
Shock-boundary layer interaction
Non-uniform flow conditions and
Three-dimensional effects.
Isolator & combustor
Isolator
It allows supersonic flow to adjust its static back
pressure higher than its inlet static pressure
The isolator cross-sectional area may be constant or
slightly divergent to accommodate boundary layer
separation.
When the combustion process begins to separate the
boundary layer, a pre-combustion shock forms.
Combustor
The combustor accepts the airflow with variations in
geometry inflow profiles and provides efficient fuel
air mixing within the available combustor length.
The combustor fuel is scheduled to stay within the
engine operability limits while optimizing engine
thrust potential.
The shock structure allows the required pressure rise,
thus isolating the combustion process from the inlet
compression process, thus acting to prevent inlet
surge or unstart.
Expansion System
The expansion system, consists of
a. Internal nozzle
b. Vehicle aft body
It completes the propulsion flow path and controls the
expansion of the high pressure and temperature gas
mixture to produce net thrust.
During the expansion process, the potential energy
generated by the combustor is converted into kinetic
energy.
Scramjet Nozzle physical phenomena includes
Boundary layer effects
Non-uniform flow conditions
Shear layer interaction and
Three-dimensional effects.
The design of the nozzle has a major effect on the
efficiency of the propulsion system and the vehicle due
to its ability to influence vehicle pitching moment and
lift.
Diagram of Expansion System
The dimensionless stream thrust
function at a given Mach number
is by the Eq
Total pressure losses in the
scramjet
Operational Characteristics
For scramjet operation, the shockwave must exist in a
stable form all the way through the engine and back
out the rear into what is called the external nozzle
The requirement for this standing wave limits the
scramjet to Mach 3 and up.
A shockwave- powerful enough to stand up to the
pressures and stresses created by burning jet fuel will
not occur until roughly Mach 3.
Fuel Choice
Missiles and short-range aircraft may use
hydrocarbon fuels for their storability and volumetric
energy density.
Long cruise range aircraft or space access systems
tend toward hydrogen because it has superior energy
release per pound of fuel, and heat absorption
capability, critical to actively cooled structures
exposed to scramjet environment.
Heat Sink Capacity of Hydrocarbon and Hydrogen
Fuels Relative to Scramjet Requirements
Advantages and disadvantages of
scramjets
Special cooling and materials
Time in the atmosphere at hypersonic speed would be
considerable, possibly 15-30 minutes. Similar to a
reentering space vehicle, heat insulation would be a
formidable task.
New materials offer good insulation at high temperature,
but they often sacrifice themselves in the process.
Therefore studies often plan on active cooling.
All cooling systems add weight and complexity to a
launch system and reduce its efficiency. The increased
cooling requirements of scramjet engines result in lower
efficiency.
Simplicity of design
Scramjets have few to no moving parts. Most of their
body consists of continuous surfaces. With simple
fuel pumps, reduced total components.
Testing difficulties
Testing scramjet designs use extremely expensive
hypersonic test chambers or expensive launch
vehicles, both of which lead to high instrumentation
costs.
Lack of stealth
There is no published way to make a scramjet
powered vehicle (or any other hypersonic vehicle)
stealthy- since the vehicle would be very hot due to
its high speed within the atmosphere it should be easy
to detect with infrared sensors. However, any
aggressive act against a scramjet vehicle would be
difficult because of its high speed.
Applications
Weapons systems -hypersonic cruise missiles.
Aircraft systems - global strike /
reconnaissance
Space access systems that will take off and
land horizontally like commercial Airplanes
Conclusion
Using these Scramjet technologies,
along with additional ground-and
flight-test experiments, will pave the
way for affordable and reusable air
breathing hypersonic propulsion
systems such as missiles, long range
aircraft and space-access vehicles
around 2010, 2015, 2025,
respectively.
References
1. NASA Dryden Flight Research Center, PAO, NASAs
X-43A Proves Hypersonic Scramjet Flight.
2. McClinton C. R.; Andrews, E. H.; and Hunt, J. L.;
Engine Development for Space Access: Past, Present, and
Future, International Symposium on Air Breathing Engines.
3. Fry R. S.; A century of Ramjet Propulsion Technology
Evolution, Journal of Propulsion and Power Vol. 20.
4. Access to Space Study: Summary Report; Office of Space
Systems Development.
5. Bekey, I.; Powel, R.; and Austin, R.; NASA Studies Access
to Space.
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