RECENT TRENDS IN SCRAMJET ENGINE TECHNOLOGYProblem Areas
4.1The main difficulty in scramjet operation is the short residence time of air in the engine i.e. a few thousandths of a second. So the task of burning the fuelin the scramjet resembles lighting a match inside a tornado and keeping it alightat any cost. The trick to work make a scramjet work lies in the extremelysophisticated shaping of the tubes inner geometry and deciding at which part of the tube the combustion is to be done. A scramjet generates stable thrust byprecisely controlling the speed and pressure of air flowing through the engineand by metering the fuel into the combustor so that it burns fully and releases itsenergy exactly as needed. Careful control of the relation between the flow areaand the heat release negates the need for mechanical choke of the Ramjet andenables the scramjet to maintain supersonic flow through the combustor.4.2Managing the thermal energy generated in the engine is a Herculean taskfor the researchers. Heat generation is primarily due to friction, from combustionprocess as well as from the heat flux due to internal shock waves impinging onthe engine wall as wall of the fore body. “
Active cooling
” is the concept adaptedto prevent melting down of the structure of the vehicle. Therefore studies oftenplan on "active cooling", where coolant circulating throughout the vehicle skinprevents it from disintegrating from the fiery atmospheric friction. Active coolingcould require more weight and complexity. There is also safety concern since it'san active system. Often, however, the coolant is the fuel itself, much in the sameway that modern rockets use their own fuel and oxidizer as coolant for their engines. Both scramjets and conventional rockets are at risk in the event of acooling failure.
4.3Another complexity involving the scramjet is that the given airflowgeometry is optimized for only a single and a particular set of flight conditions i.e.speed, altitude etc. Successful scramjet operation is thus a delicate balancing actof choosing the right material and design complication.
FUEL FOR SCRAMJET ENGINE
4.4The primary difference between the rocket engine and a turbojet engine isthat rockets carry their own supply of oxygen internally while turbojet enginessuck in oxygen from the external atmosphere. The scramjet is an air breather,meaning that it gets its oxygen from the surrounding air. However, the scramjet issignificantly different from other kinds of jet engines, like turbojets and ramjets, inone key way. In most jets, the air sucked into the engines is slowed below Mach1 and is combusted at subsonic speeds. The air within the scramjet combustionchamber, however, remains “supersonic”.4.5In order to make a scramjet work, a fuel that can burn rapidly andgenerate a large amount of thrust must be chosen. Hydrogen meets thesecriteria. One way to illustrate the differences between various fuels and their energy content is a measurement called the Lower Heating Value (LHV). TheLHV describes the amount of energy released when a fuel is combusted and allof the remaining combustion products remain in gaseous form. The LHV for hydrogen is 119,600 kJ/kg. JP-8, another fuel commonly used in military aircraft,has a LHV of only 43,190 kJ/kg, less than half that of hydrogen. Hence, hydrogenprovides more "thrust” per kilogram than JP-8, or any other hydrocarbon fuel for that matter. There are also other advantages to using hydrogen as a fuel. Firstof all, hydrogen is extremely flammable, it only takes a small amount of energy toignite it and make it burn. Hydrogen also has a wide flammability range, meaningthat it can burn when it occupies anywhere from 4% to 74% of the air by volume.Since hydrogen is a gas, it mixes very easily with air allowing for very efficientcombustion. Another advantage over hydrocarbon-based fuels like JP-8 or
gasoline is that hydrogen does not produce any harmful pollutants like carbonmonoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO
2
), or particulate matter during thecombustion process.4.6There are some disadvantages to using hydrogen as a fuel in aerospacevehicles. Hydrogen is not a dense fuel. At standard pressure and temperature, ithas a density of only 0.09 kg/m
3
. Compared to the density of gasoline at 750kg/m
3
or JP-8 at 800 kg/m
3
. While this low density is an advantage in terms of saving weight, hydrogen requires a large volume in order to store an adequateamount of chemical energy for practical use. Hydrogen gas is typically storedunder pressure to increase its density, but even at 10,000 psi (68,950 KPa) it willcontain only a quarter of the chemical energy stored in an equivalent volume of JP-8. The density of hydrogen can be further increased by cooling andpressurizing the substance to the point that it becomes a liquid, but even in thisform it will need a tank approximately twice the size of that required by JP-8. Inaddition, the cost and safety issues involved in manufacturing and storingcryogenically-cooled fuel is another major drawback. Despite the clear advantages of hydrogen described earlier, more energy can often be stored insmaller volumes using denser fuels. As a result, vehicles burning denser hydrocarbon fuels can usually fly longer distances than those using hydrogen.4.7Even given these limitations, however, hydrogen has been a clear choicefor many scramjet researchers due to its versatility and performance. One of thefirst hydrogen-fueled scramjets ever flown was theX-43Alaunched on 27 March2004. The X-43A is part of NASA's Hyper-X program to develop new air-breathing propulsion systems for use in hypersonic flight. A milestone in scramjetresearch, the X-43A achieved positive acceleration while climbing at Mach 7 for approximately 10 seconds.
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