Scramjet Engine

Supersonic Combustion Ramjet Engine

PRESENTED BY:
T.KUMARASWAMY.
M.TECH(AEROSPACE).
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.

Thank you