Hostname: page-component-669899f699-ggqkh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-04-25T20:00:42.371Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Performance modelling and numerical simulation validation of hypersonic inlet with fuel pre-injection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 April 2025

F.T. Luo ,
H.T. Li ,
Z.M. Qu ,
W.J. Chen Open the ORCID record for W.J. Chen [Opens in a new window]  and
Y.S. Long
F.T. Luo
Affiliation:
School of Aerospace Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, P.R. China
H.T. Li
Affiliation:
School of Aerospace Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, P.R. China
Z.M. Qu
Affiliation:
School of Aerospace Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, P.R. China
W.J. Chen*
Affiliation:
School of Aerospace Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, P.R. China
Y.S. Long
Affiliation:
School of Aerospace Engineering, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, 430074, P.R. China
*
Corresponding author: W.J. Chen; Email: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Fuel pre-injection in the inlet of a hypersonic engine has been proven to be advantageous in the range of the very high flight Mach numbers. In this paper, a rapid inlet performance analysis model with fuel pre-injection is proposed. The modelling process is divided into two stages. Firstly, the baseline inlet model is provided based on the working principle of the inlet. Then, the newly proposed fuel injection and heat release model is added to the baseline inlet model. Among them, the fuel injection and heat release model is equivalent to increasing the compression angle in the cold state. And in the hot state the effect of the fuel heat release will be considered in addition to the effect of cold state. The research results show as the equivalence ratio increases, the equivalent compression angle also increases, but the two are not in a linear relationship. Based on this pattern of effect, fuel injection can be used to regulate the shock wave position and accurately control the flow rate of the inlet. In addition, by comparing to numerical simulation, it is found that the analysis model can almost reasonably predict the performance of the pre-injection inlet. However, the calculation of drag coefficient has some deviation compared to numerical simulation, which is probably due to the lack of consideration of friction drag and the interaction between the shock wave and boundary layer in the model analysis. Overall, the modelling method proposed in this paper can reflect the effect of fuel injection on inlet performance, which can be used to optimise injection strategy in the future.

Keywords

inlet pre-injectionmodel analysisinjection modelnumerical simulationperformance parameter
Type
Research Article
Information
The Aeronautical Journal , First View , pp. 1 - 24
Check for updates
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Royal Aeronautical Society

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Seleznev, R.K. History of scramjet propulsion development, J Phys Conf Ser, 2018, 1009, (1), pp 1–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Das, N., Pandey, K.M. and Sharma, K.K. A brief review on the recent advancement in the field of jet engine-scramjet engine, Mater Today: Proc, 2021, 45, pp 6857–6863.Google Scholar
Cecere, D., Ingenito, A., Giacomazzi, E., Romagnosi, L. and Bruno, C. Hydrogen/air supersonic combustion for future hypersonic vehicles, Int J Hydrogen Energy, 2011, 36, (18), pp 11969–11984.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Capra, B.R., Boyce, R.R., Kuhn, M. and Hald, H. Combustion enhancement in a scramjet engine using oxygen enrichment and porous fuel injection, J Fluid Mech, 2015, 767, pp 173–198.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Li, L., Huang, W., Yan, L., Zhao, Z.T. and Liao, L. Mixing enhancement and penetration improvement induced by pulsed gaseous jet and a vortex generator in supersonic flows, Int J Hydrogen Energy, 2017, 42, (30), pp 19318–19330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huang, W. Mixing enhancement strategies and their mechanisms in supersonic flows: a brief review, Acta Astronaut, 2018, 145, pp 492–500.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dharavath, M., Manna, P. and Chakraborty, D. Numerical exploration of mixing and combustion in ethylene fueled scramjet combustor, Acta Astronaut, 2015, 117, pp 305–318.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vinogradov, V.A., Makarov, A.Y., Potekhina, I.V. and Stepanov, V.V. Numerical and experimental study of fuel pre-injection in the inlet of a high-velocity air-breathing engine, Combustion, Explos Shock Waves, 2017, 53, pp 526–537.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhu, C.X., Qiu, R.F., Chen, R.Q. and You, Y.C. Numerical investigation of fuel pre-injection with different injector configurations in hypersonic inlet, 21st AIAA International Space Planes and Hypersonic Technologies Conference, Xiamen, Fujian, China, 2017.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guoskov, O.V., Kopchenov, V.I., Lomkov, K.E. and Vinogradov, V.A. Numerical research of gaseous fuel pre-injection in hypersonic three-dimensional inlet, J Propul Power, 2001, 17, (6), pp 1162–1169.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kim, J.W. and Kwon, O.J. Numerical simulation of mixing in an inlet-fueled hypersonic-air-breathing propulsion, ICAS, Daejeon, South Korea, 2016.Google Scholar
Zhu, C.X., Huang, Y.R., Chen, R.Q. and You, Y.C. Study on pre-injection of pyrolysis hydrocarbon fuel in hypersonic inlets, Propuls Technol, 2018, 39, (1), pp 196–202 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Gardner, A.D., Paull, A. and McIntyre, T.J. Upstream port-hole injection in a 2-D scramjet model, Shock Waves, 2002, 11, pp 369–375.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, J.C. and Smart, M.K. Application of inlet injection to a three-dimensional scramjet at Mach 8, AIAA J, 2010, 48, (4), pp 829–838.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turner, J.C. and Smart, M.K. Application of radical farming to a 3-D scramjet at Mach 8, 46th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting and Exhibit, Reno, Nevada, 2008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wang, Y.W. and Sislian, J.P. Numerical simulation of gaseous hydrocarbon fuel injection in a hypersonic inlet, J Propul Power, 2010, 26, (5), pp 1114–1124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barth, J.E., Wheatley, V. and Smart, M.K. Effects of hydrogen fuel injection in a Mach 12 scramjet inlet, AIAA Journal, 2015, 53, (10), pp 2907–2919.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barth, J.E., Wheatley, V. and Smart, M.K. Inlet Fuel Injection in a Mach 12 Shape-Transitioning Scramjet, 52nd Aerospace Sciences Meeting, National Harbor, Maryland, USA, 2014.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalle, D.J., Fotia, M.L. and Driscoll, J.F. Reduced-order modeling of two-dimensional supersonic flows with applications to scramjet inlets, J Propul Power, 2010, 26, (3), pp 545–555.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dalle, D.J., Torrez, S.M. and Driscoll, J.F. Performance analysis of variable-geometry scramjet inlets using a low-order model, 47th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE joint propulsion conference & exhibit, San Diego, California, USA, 2011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zhang, D., Cheng, F., Tang, S., Gong, C.L. and Xu, B. Research on quasi-one-dimensional modeling and performance analysis of RBCC propulsion system, Int J Turbo Jet-Eng, 2021, 40, (3), pp 1–15.Google Scholar
Huo, C., Yang, Z.H., Zhang, Z.Z. and Liu, P.L. Numerical analysis on the conceptual design of an air-breathing engine inlet working in Mach number 3∼5.5, Proc Inst Mech Eng G J Aerosp Eng, 2022, 236, (2), pp 294–307.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burcat, A. and Ruscic, B. Third Millenium Ideal Gas and Condensed Phase Thermochemical Database for Combustion with Update from Active Thermochemical Tables, Argonne National Laboratory, Argonne, IL, 2005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stratford, B.S. and Beavers, G.S. The Calculation of the Compressible Turbulent Boundary Layer in An Arbitrary Pressure Gradient – A Correlation of Certain Previous Methods, Reports and Memoranda No. 3207, Ministry of Aviation, Aeronautical Research Council, London, 1959.Google Scholar
Xu, X., Chen, B. and Xu, D.J. Principle and Technology of Ramjet Engine, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics Press, 2014 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Lee, J., Lin, K.C. and Eklund, D. Challenges in fuel injection for high-speed propulsion systems, AIAA Journal, 2015, 53, (6), pp 1405–1423.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brahmachary, S., Fujio, C. and Ogawa, H. Multi-point design optimization of a high-performance intake for scramjet-powered ascent flight, Aerosp Sci Technol, 2020, 107, pp 106362.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Segal, C. The Scramjet Engine: Processes and Characteristics, Cambridge, England, 2009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Birzer, C.H. and Doolan, C.J. Quasi-one-dimensional model of hydrogen-fueled scramjet combustors, J Propul Power, 2009, 25, (6), pp 1220–1225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gerlinger, P. and Bruggemann, D. Numerical investigation of hydrogen strut injections into supersonic airflows, J Propul Power, 2000, 16, (1), pp. 22–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Curran, E.T., Murthy, S.N.B. Scramjet Propulsion, Progress in Astronautics and Aeronautics, AIAA, Washington, DC, 2001.Google Scholar
Gerdroodbary, M.B. Scramjets: Fuel Mixing and Injection Systems, Butterworth-Heinemann, England, 2020.Google Scholar
Li, N., Chang, J.T., Tang, J.F., Yu, D.R., Bao, W. and Song, Y.P. Effect of control route on the unstart/restart characteristics of an over-under TBCC inlet, Adv Aircr Spacecr Sci, 2018, 5, (4), pp 431–444.Google Scholar
Shi, W., Chang, J.T., Zhang, J.L., Wang, Y.Y., Hou, W.X. and Bao, W. Numerical investigation on behaviors of shock train in a hypersonic inlet with translating cowl, Acta Astronaut, 2018, 152, pp 682–691.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ding, F., Shen, C.B., Huang, W. and Liu, J. Numerical validation and back-pressure effect on internal compression flows of typical supersonic inlet. Aeronaut J, 2015, 119, (1215), pp 631–645.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ye, J., Zhang, Z., Dai, M., Nie, S., Qin, F. and Wei, X.G. Combustion organization strategies for a variable geometry RBCC combustor under low total temperature conditions, Appl Therm Eng, 2024, 236, p 121782.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Odam, J. and Paull, A. Internal combustor scramjet pressure measurements in the T4 shock tunnel, AIAA Joint Space Planes and Hypersonic Systems and Technology Conference, Orleans, France, 2002.Google Scholar
Wei, Y.B., Zhang, K.Y. and Luo, X.C. Analysis and research on internal resistance characteristics of two-dimensional hypersonic inlet, Acta Aerodyn Sinica, 2010, 28, (1), 104–108 (in Chinese).Google Scholar
Gopal, V. and Wilson, D. Reduced-order analysis of scramjet inlet operation, 54th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting, California, USA, 2016.Google Scholar