Numerical and Experimental Study on the Solid-Fuel Scramjet Combustor

The specific thrust change rule during the working process of the solid-fuel scramjet combustor was researched using both numerical and experimental methods. A methane-burning vitiated air heater was designed and made to simulate the flight environment of Mach 6 at a 25 km altitude. Based on the two-dimensional numerical flowfield results, a new quasi-one-dimensional numerical method was established to simplify the unsteady combustion and flow of the solid-fuel scramjet. This method can be used to calculate the parametric changing process of the combustor quickly. Self-ignition and fuel regression rate characteristics in the current experiment were consistent with the results from previous works. The agreement between the numerical and the experimental results was generally good as well. The specific thrust can reach a level of 600∼800  N/kg·s in the designed flight environment. Moreover, it was found that the specific thrust decreased with the total pressure loss increasing during the working process.