Work

Numerical research on flow and performance of adaptive throat combustor for wide-range scramjet

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: This paper presents a special design concept for a fixed-geometry combustor, which is adaptable to a wide range of requirements for future scramjets. The design is based on the principles of staged combustion and the integration of a geometric throat. In low-speed inflow conditions, the combustor optimizes subsonic combustion performance through the choking effect created by the geometric throat. In contrast, under high-speed inflow conditions, the aerodynamic properties of the open cavity establish a boundary downstream of the combustor. This design mitigates the negative impacts of the geometric throat in supersonic flow, resulting in improved combustion performance under high-speed inflow conditions. This paper examines how the combustor flow channel expansion ratio affects the combustion flow field and performance parameters at flight Mach numbers from 3.0 to 7.0, with a kerosene equivalence ratio of 1.0. This paper verifies the feasibility of the new design concept with a specific adaptive throat combustor. To illustrate the advantages of this combustor, a traditional thermal throat combustor is present for comparative analysis of combustion performance and internal flow field parameters at typical flight Mach numbers. The results show that under inflow conditions corresponding to Mach numbers 3 to 5, the combustion performance of the adaptive throat combustor significantly exceeded that of the thermal throat combustor. Under inflow conditions corresponding to Mach numbers 6 to 7, the adaptive throat combustor’s performance was slightly lower than that of the thermal throat combustor. Therefore, this design concept holds considerable promise for practical engineering applications.

Source: Chinese Journal of Aeronautics

DOI: 10.1016/j.cja.2025.103861

Authors: Shengzu GUO, Xu ZHANG, Fangyou YU, Hao CHEN, Qifan ZHANG, Lianjie YUE

Institutions: Chinese Academy of Sciences, Institute of Mechanics, University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, State Key Laboratory of High Temperature Gas Dynamics

Language: English

Topic: Computational Fluid Dynamics and Aerodynamics

Subfield: Computational Mechanics

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: hybrid

Estimated APC paid: $2,000

Funder: National Natural Science Foundation of China