Hydrocarbon-Fueled Scramjet Combustor Flowpath Development for Mach 6-8 HIFire Flight Experiments (Preprint)

摘要

The Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation (HIFiRE) Program is a joint effort between the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and the Australian Defence Scientific and Technology Organisation (DSTO) devoted to the study of basic hypersonic phenomena through flight experimentation. Experiments have been planned to explore the operating, performance, and stability characteristics of a simple hydrocarbon-fueled scramjet combustor as it transitions from dual-mode to scramjet-mode operation and during supersonic combustion at Mach 8+ flight conditions. This paper describes initial efforts to develop the isolator/combustor flowpath for these flight experiments. Computational results suggest that excellent performance can be obtained at Mach 8 flight conditions with simple inclined wall fuel injection upstream of a cavity-based flameholder using both ethylene and a mixture of ethylene and methane. Computational analyses have also been used to explore combustor operability and performance at flight Mach numbers between 6 and 8 to identify where mode transition can be expected to occur.