DEVELOPMENT OF SCRAMJET PERFORMANCE CORRELATIONS USING AN ADVANCED CFD CODE

COMPARED TO CONVENTIONAL TURBOJET/TURBOFAN ENGINES, THE SUPERSONIC COMBUSTION RAMJET (SCRAMJET) IS A MORE EFFICIENT PROPULSION SYSTEM AT HIGH FLIGHT MACH NUMBERS AND ALTITUDE. HOWEVER, THERE ARE INSUFFICIENT DATA TO ASSESS ENGINE CYCLE PAYOFFS. IT IS PROPOSED TO USE A VALIDATED COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS (CFD) CODE TO PRODUCE THE NEEDED DATA. IN PHASE I, AN EXISTING FAVRE-AVERAGED, COMPRESSIBLE, CHEMICALLY-REACTING, NAVIER-STOKES CODE WILL BE MODIFIED BY INCORPORATING AN IMPROVED SHOCK-CAPTURING SCHEME AND ADDING A GLOBAL HYDROGEN/AIR REACTION-RATE MODEL. AFTER SYSTEMATIC VALIDATION, DEMONSTRATION CALCULATIONS WILL BE PERFORMED ON A GENERIC SCRAMJET CONFIGURATION. RECOMMENDATIONS FOR CODE REFINEMENTS WILL BE MADE, AND NUMERICAL/EXPERIMENTAL TEST PLANS FORMULATED, IN CONSULTATION WITH DR. J. A. SCHETZ (A LEADING EXPERT IN SCRAMJET PROPULSION). PHASE II WILL CONSIST OF FURTHER CODE ENHANCEMENTS AND EXPERIMENTAL TESTING TO PROVIDE DATA FOR ANCHORING CFD MODELS. THE FINAL CODE WILL BE USED TO PERFORM NUMERICAL TESTS IN MUCH THE SAME MANNER AS EXPERIMENTAL TESTS ARE PERFORMED FOR HARDWARE. THE PROJECT WILL CULMINATE IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF CORRELATIONS FOR USE IN ENGINE CYCLE ANALYSIS DECKS.