Advantage of ethanol fuel for gas generator cycle air turbo ramjet engine

摘要

Performance analyses of Gas Generator cycle Air Turbo Ramjet (GG-ATR) engine are conducted to investigate the feasibility of ethanol fuel, as comparing Liquefied Hydrogen (LH2), Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG), and n-C12H26. Liquefied Oxygen (LOX) is considered as an oxidizer. Gas generator combustion temperature and compressor pressure ratio are selected as the analytical parameters, which are varied from 900 to 1700 K and from 2.0 to 4.0, respectively. In general, specific impulses of light molecule weight fuels, such as LH2 and LNG, are higher than those of large molecule weight fuel. For storable fuel, Isp of ethanol is larger than that of n-C12H26 when gas generator temperature is less than 1300 K, although specific heat release of ethanol is only two thirds of n-C12H26 heat release. The main chemical species of n-C12H26 gas generator (GG) combustion gas are CH4 and CO. On the other hand, ethanol GG combustion gas is mainly composed of H2 and CO, resulting in smaller molecular weight than n-C12H26. These characteristics contribute to larger Isp of ethanol than n-C12H26 and indicate the feasibility of ethanol for GG-ATR engine fuel.