Criteria for hypersonic airbreathing propulsion and its experimental verification

Hypersonic airbreathing propulsion is one of the top techniques for future aerospace flight, but there are still no practical engines after seventy years’ development. Two critical issues are identified to be the barriers for the ramjet-based engine that has been taken as the most potential concept of the hypersonic propulsion for decades. One issue is the upstream-traveling shock wave that develops from spontaneous waves resulting from continuous heat releases in combustors and can induce unsteady combustion that may lead to engine surging during scramjet engine operation.The other is the scramjet combustion mode that cannot satisfy thrust needs of hypersonic vehicles since its thermos-efficiency decreases as the flight Mach number increases. The two criteria are proposed for the ramjet-based hypersonic propulsion to identify combustion modes and avoid thermal choking. A standing oblique detonation ramjet(Sodramjet) engine concept is proposed based on the criteria by replacing diffusive combustion with an oblique detonation that is a unique pressure-gain phenomenon in nature. The Sodramjet engine model is developed with several flow control techniques, and tested successfully with the hypersonic flight-duplicated shock tunnel.The experimental data show that the Sodramjet engine model works steadily, and an oblique detonation can be made stationary in the engine combustor and is controllable. This research demonstrates the Sodramjet engine is a promising concept and can be operated stably with high thermal efficiency at hypersonic flow conditions.

Aerodynamic force and moment measurement of 10°half-angle cone in JF12 shock tunnel

An aerodynamic force and moment measurement was conducted in JF12 long-testduration detonation-driven shock tunnel of Institute of Mechanics,Chinese Academy of Sciences.The test duration of JF12 is 100–130 ms.The nominal Mach number is 7.0 and the exit diameter of the contoured nozzle is 2.5 m.The total enthalpy is 2.5 MJ/kg which duplicates the hypersonic flight conditions of Mach number 7.0 at 35 km altitude.The test model is the standard aerodynamic force model of 10° half-angle sharp cone.The length of the test model is 1500 mm and the weight is 57 kg.The aerodynamic forces were measured with a six-component strain balance.The angles of attack were set to be à5°,0°,5°,10° and 14°,respectively.The experimental results show that in the 100–130 ms test duration,the signals of strain balance have 3–4 complete vibration cycles.So,the aerodynamic forces and moments can be obtained directly by averaging the signals of balance without acceleration compensation.The force measurement error of repeatability of JF12 is less than 2%.The aerodynamic force coefficients of JF12 are in good agreement with those of conventional hypersonic wind tunnels.For this test model at Mach number 7.0 and total enthalpy of 2.5 MJ/kg,the real-gas effects on aerodynamic force characteristics are not very evident.