SCRAMJET COMBUSTION

PROCESS
-SAKTHIKUMAR R

SCRAMJET

COMBUSTION PROCESS
The central problem of the design of supersonic
combustor is the achieving of combustion in a
short residence time with minimum stagnation
pressure loss.
Short residence time & minimum stagnation
pressure loss are relevant for any combustor,
supersonic combustor are in special in demanding
short residence time since, the combustor would
be too long with high speed flow.

TYPE

GT MC

AB/RJ

LR

SCRAMJET

PRESSURE, atm 2-40

2-5

20-200

0.5-1.5

TEMP, K

500-750

600-2000

2500-3500

1200-1500

MACH NO

0.2-0.4

0.3-0.5

0.5-0.7

1.5-3.5

MEAN
VELOCITY, m/s

150-300

200-350

800-1000

700-1500

REACTION
TIME,ms

0.3-1

3-4

1-2

1-1.5

RESIDENCE
TIME, ms

3.5-5

4-5

2-3

0.7-1

DAMOHLER NO 1-5

1-2

1-3

0.5-1

PRESSURE
LOSS, %

4-5

5-20

15-20

6-8

Contn
Solid rockets are not included since, the
residence time is much larger than reaction time.
This because, the chamber holds the propellant
inside with its port that has a larger free volume
& combustion process is limited to a small zone
near the propellant surface.
Scramjet, the flight will high altitude & therefore,
the atm pressure will be b/w 0.025-0.006 atm &
rise in static pressure through external & internal
compression process will be 0.5-1.5atm.

Contn
Achieving this kind of static pressure rise would
call for careful design of the fore body& intake
geometry.& also call for larger volume of
combustor.
So aim to keep the static pressure close to 0.5 to
0.7 atm & temp b/w 1200 to 1500K.
Mixing layersIn actuality, fuel is injected as jets
through fine holes drilled into struts/pylons as
objects located inside the combustor.

Contn
The essential difference is that one cannot afford
to place larger blockages in the flow since, the
stagnation pressure loss will be substantial.
The suggestion arising out of this study is that the
fuel jet path can be arranged such as to intersect
shocks from surfaces ahead of the fuel injection
zone.
If a shock intersects a hydrogen jet flowing into
high speed streams, additional vorticity caused at
interface b/w the fuel & air leads to better
mixing.

Contn
Combustion gets initiated, one can expect to high
temp zones separated from low temp zones &
these will provide the necessary density gradient.
When these zones are intersected by shock
waves, to enhanced mixing.
The change in pressure distribution from when
fuel-off case to that when fuel is injected into air
from the additional mass flux,momentum,energy
from the fuel.

Contn
If the combustion chamber is sufficiently long
so that air & fuel become fully mixed, then the
avg pressure rise or fall ,depending on the fuel
momentum & energy.
In general, there will be change in the avg
pressure of fuel-air mixture, which will
depend not only on the momentum &
energy, fuel injection.

Contn
To develop an understanding of the
effectiveness of different injection systems,
-Wall injection
-Central injection
-Port injection

Contn
When injecting the fuel, first aim clearly is to mix
the fuel& air, &this can be achieved by either
diffusion process or penetrating mechanism.
If diffusion process is used, the combustion
chamber is generally long, and therefore
combustion chamber skin-friction losses may
significant.
To use the penetration mechanism usually results
in a shorter combustion chamber.
Fuel enters the free stream either sonically or
supersonically.

WALL INJECTION
Wall injection-injection from a downstreamfacing step in the combustion chamber wall.
Wall injection will be classed as one that uses a
purely diffusion process to obtain mixing.
Some of the advantage over central injection:
-It provides film cooling to the combustion
chamber walls.
-Free stream pressure losses are reduced.
-There is no central stut.

WALL INJECTION

Contn
Obviously, the main difference b/w wall-and centralinjection systems is that wall injected close to a cold wall,
whereas centrally injected fuel is injected into the middle
of the free stream.
Clearly, one disadvantages of the wall-injection systems
here is that the fuel injected from the wall has only one
diffusion boundary whereas centrally injected fuel has two.
This would account for a possible slowing down of
combustion but would not account for its complete
suppression.
The presence of the cold wall adversely affects the diffusion
& burning of the fuel.

Contn
Morgan et al postulated that the cold wall reduces the
temperature of the fuel-air mixture close to the wall,
which is not a problem with central injection.
In the case of wall injection, the majority of the fuel
lies in this region. Therefore the fuel simply may not
reach its self ignition temperature.
To enhance the mixing process when using wall
injection, placed a number of mixing wedges
downstream of the injector.
Combustion chamber cross sectional area 27x54mm

PORT INJECTION
Port injection-injection from a hole or holes in the
combustion chamber wall.
Port injection uses a purely penetration
mechanisms.
Scramjet port injection would appear to be a
reasonable option for delivery of fuel to air.
If the dynamic pressure is sufficiently high
compared with that of the free stream will be
achieved from a port in the side of the combustion
chamber.

PORT INJECTION

Contn
The penetration can be relatively insensitive
to the injection angle is greater than 15 deg.
Hence, fuel need not be injected
perpendicular to the wall but can be injected
at to the flow, so that component of the fuel
momentum is directed downstream, which
will add to the thrust.
Fuel was injected sonically or supersonically
from hole that dia of 3.5to7mm.

Contn
Some experiments a large number of small
holes were used as an injection system, and a
distinct lack of mixing was observed.
As the number holes were decreased & the
size of the holes was increased, better mixing
was observed.
The combustion chamber cross sectional area
is 25x50mm.

CENTRAL INJECTION
Central injection-injection from a downstream
facing centrally located in the combustion
chamber.
Central injection may be using a combination
of two.

CENTRAL INJECTION

IGNITION
A supersonic combustion ramjet engine which
is a leading candidate for the propulsion
system of future hypersonic vehicles, requires
technologies to secure reliable ignition and
stable flame holding in supersonic airflow.
At low flight Mach numbers in particular,
some types of forced ignition systems are
necessary because the total enthalpy of
airflow is insufficient to induce autoignition.

Contn
the torch consists of a copper anode and a
hafnium tipped cathode, isolated from each
other by a 4 micrometer gap.
Nitrogen feedstock gas is fed through this gap
into the combustion chamber.
When sufficient voltage is placed across the
torch, dielectric breakdown occurs within the
nitrogen and plasma is formed.
Injection of the plasma into the fuel-air mixture is
a robust means of ignition and flame-holding.

Contn
When the hydrogen jet is injected into the lower
stream of the plasma torch, the combustion efficiency
is reduced with the increase of the interval between
the plasma torch and the hydrogen jet.
In addition, as the interval decreases, an extension of
the recirculation zone, which causes a significant
increase of combustion efficiency, is observed.
On the other hand, when the hydrogen jet is injected
into the upper stream of the plasma torch, a larger
interval generally results in larger combustion
efficiency.

FUEL
Hydrogen fuelled
High energy, low storage density
Operating range: Mach 5 to 15
Isp ~ 3000s
Hydrocarbon fuelled
Lower energy, high storage density
Operating range: Mach 5 to 10
Isp ~1200s

Contn
Since the structure of compounds in kerosene
is complex with a no of carbon & hydrogen
atoms, the reaction process with kerosene is
more complex than the hydrogen.
This is because the no of bonds to be broken
or made as the chemical system moves from
reactants to products is large.

LAUNCH

PROSPECTIVES
Space application
Missile application

BACKUPS