EXPERIMENTS ON A SCRAMJET ENGINE WITH RAMP-COMPRESSION INLET AT MACH 8 CONDITION

National Aerospace Laboratory of Japan (NAL) has been testing sidewall-compression type scramjet engines under Mach 8 flight condition since 1995. Over 100 tests under the condition have been conducted at NAL's RamJet- engine Test Facility (RJTF). However, no significant achievement has been taken from these experiments. Several type/configuration of engines were delivered and tested, but they could not produce thrust larger than their internal drag. This report presents recent modification to one of the engines and its experimental achievements: To reduce the drag caused by a strut, which has been generally used as a flame holder and a part of air compressing system, a ramp-compression wall (ramp block) is installed on the topwall instead of the strut. Then, this engine's fundamental performance and characteristics are displayed and discussed. Additionally, we show some experimental results of heat flux on the ramp. Comparing these results with our former experimental results, we discuss advantages of the ramp block model.