Design of an airframe integrated 3-D scramjet and experimental results at a Mach 10 flight condition

Shock tunnel experiments have been conducted within The University of Queensland's T4 Stalker Tunnel with a small airframe-integrated three-dimensional scramjet engine. The goal of the investigation was to examine the in uence of airframe integration on the engine operation. The tests were conducted at a condition replicating ight at Mach 10.4 and a dynamic pressure of 48 kPa. The internal owpath featured a rectangular-to-elliptical shape transition (REST) inlet designed for ight at Mach 12. An elliptical combustor with a constant area and diverging section and a three-dimensional nozzle completed the internal owpath. This owpath was integrated with a forebody and streamlined external geometry to provide the test model. Gaseous hydrogen fuel was injected either through portholes on the inlet, from a series of portholes behind a rearward facing step at the combustor entrance, or a combination of the two. It was found that the inlet-only and combined fuel injection schemes both produced steady combustion pressure rise without the use of ignition aids. No combustion was observed for the step-only fuelling scheme. The integration of the REST inlet with an appropriate vehicle forebody was not found to adversely aect the operation of the engine.

[1]  Michael K. Smart,et al.  Application of radical farming to a 3-D scramjet at Mach 8 , 2008 .

[2]  Allan Paull,et al.  Scramjet Lift, Thrust and Pitching-Moment Characteristics Measured in a Shock Tunnel , 2006 .

[3]  William H. Heiser,et al.  Hypersonic Airbreathing Propulsion , 1994 .

[4]  Robert A. Baurle,et al.  Extraction of One-Dimensional Flow Properties from Multidimensional Data Sets , 2008 .

[5]  R. G. Morgan,et al.  Transition of compressible high enthalpy boundary layer flow over a flat plate , 1994, The Aeronautical Journal (1968).

[6]  C. E. Smith,et al.  The starting process in a hypersonic nozzle , 1966, Journal of Fluid Mechanics.

[7]  Richard G. Morgan,et al.  Composite scramjet combustor , 2009 .

[8]  Michael K. Smart.  Design of Three-Dimensional Hypersonic Inlets with Rectangular-to-Elliptical Shape Transition , 1999 .

[9]  P. Czysz.  Thermodynamic Spectrum of Airbreathing Propulsion , 1988 .

[10]  William Escher,et al.  Energy management (in hypersonic propulsion systems) , 1996 .

[11]  Russell R. Boyce,et al.  Mass spectrometric measurements of driver gas arrival in the T4 free-piston shock-tunnel , 2005 .

[12]  Peter A. Jacobs,et al.  Eilmer's theory book: basic models for gas dynamics and thermochemistry , 2012 .

[13]  Richard A. Thompson,et al.  A review of reaction rates and thermodynamic and transport properties for the 11-species air model for chemical and thermal nonequilibrium calculations to 30000 K , 1989 .

[14]  S R Sanderson,et al.  Drag balance for hypervelocity impulse facilities , 1991 .

[15]  Kevin Bowcutt,et al.  Performance, Economic, and Operational Drivers of Reusable Launch Vehicles , 2002 .

[16]  Michael K. Smart,et al.  Shock-Tunnel Experiments with a Mach 12 Rectangular-to-Elliptical Shape-Transition Scramjet at Offdesign Conditions , 2009 .

[17]  Peter A. Jacobs,et al.  Helmholtz Resonance of Pitot Pressure Measurements in Impulsive Hypersonic Test Facilities , 2009 .

[18]  Peter A. Jacobs,et al.  The Eilmer3 Code: user guide and example book , 2013 .

[19]  R. C. Rogers,et al.  Flow establishment in a generic scramjet combustor , 1990 .

[20]  Ajay P. Kothari,et al.  The Hypersonic Space and Global Transportation System: A Concept for Routine and Affordable Access to Space , 2011 .

[21]  Michael K. Smart,et al.  Design Methodology for the Airbreathing Second Stage of a Rocket-Scramjet-Rocket Launch Vehicle , 2011 .

[22]  J. A. White,et al.  A Psuedo-Temporal Multi-Grid Relaxation Scheme for Solving the Parabolized Navier-Stokes Equations , 1999 .

[23]  Allan Paull,et al.  Scramjet thrust measurement in a shock tunnel , 1995 .

[24]  Peter A. Jacobs,et al.  Suitability of the k–ω turbulence model for scramjet flowfield simulations , 2012 .

[25]  C. Builder,et al.  On the thermodynamic spectrum of airbreathing propulsion , 1964 .

[26]  Allan Paull,et al.  Scramjets and shock tunnels—The Queensland experience , 2005 .

[27]  J. P. Baird,et al.  Measurements of heat transfer to a flat plate in a dissociated high-enthalpy laminar air flow , 1980, Journal of Fluid Mechanics.

[28]  G. Maggio,et al.  The Benefits of Hypersonic Airbreathing Launch Systems for Access to Space , 2003 .

[29]  Luca Maddalena,et al.  Complex Wall Injector Array for High-Speed Combustors , 2008 .

[30]  Ulrich Henne,et al.  Measurement of Flow Properties and Thrust on Scramjet Nozzle Using Pressure-Sensitive Paint , 2009 .

[31]  W. R. Davies,et al.  Heat transfer and transition to turbulence in the shock-induced boundary layer on a semi-infinite flat plate , 1969, Journal of Fluid Mechanics.

[32]  Kevin W. Flaherty,et al.  Operability Benefits of Airbreathing Hypersonic Propulsion for Flexible Access to Space , 2010 .

[33]  Paul Zarchan,et al.  Advanced Hypersonic Test Facilities , 2002 .

[34]  Michael K. Smart,et al.  Experimental testing of a hypersonic inlet with rectangular-to-elliptical shape transition , 1999 .

[35]  Mark J. Lewis,et al.  Numerical study of the flow establishment time in hypersonic shock tunnels , 1993 .