Combustion characteristics of a novel design of solid-fuel ramjet motor with swirl flow

Abstract

The coupling of high speed to wide range is the key problem in the military applications. Solid-fuel ramjet (SFRJ) has drawn much interest since the beginning of the last century which could be used to extend the range and speed of the missiles as in ramjet-powered missiles. Nevertheless, solid-fuel ramjet suffers from low regression rate of the solid fuel. To enhance the regression rate of the solid-fuel ramjet, in this paper, a new design is proposed and numerically investigated. The new design uses two solid fuels with keeping the simplicity in the design of the classic solid-fuel ramjet. For the simulations, an in-house CFD code has been developed to solve Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations of turbulent, reacting, unsteady, and swirl flow. Simulations are carried out for the proposed and classic designs with and without swirl flow. The results are compared with the classic design for the same configuration and flow conditions. It is shown that the new design has improved the regression rate, reactants mixing degree, and performance of SFRJ. The proposed design offered two diffusion flames at which the new flame started from the inlet of the combustion chamber in the swirl flow case and near to the combustor's end for non-swirl case.