Performance study of a pre-cooled turbo-rocket combined engine under a wide Mach number of 0~5

Abstract

In view of the urgent demand for wide speed range and high-performance power for next generation aircraft, near space multi-functional platform and the first stage of TSTO (two-stage-to-orbit) transportation system, this paper timely puts forward an innovative turbo-rocket combined cycle propulsion scheme named NUAA-PTRE (Pre-cooled Turbo-Rocket Engine designed by Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics) under Ma 0–5. In the scheme, hydrocarbon fuel at normal temperature is employed to pre-cool incoming air, and the chemical heat sink of fuel cracking is utilized sufficiently, which expends flight Mach number range of aircraft effectively. In this paper, the performance characteristics of the engine such as thrust, specific impulse under Ma 0–5 and 0–30km in the flight envelope are studied. The influence of air pre-cooling on the performance at Ma 4–5 is evaluated. This paper points out that the pre-cooling of incoming air by pyrolysis of endothermic hydrocarbon fuel above Ma 4/880 K can broaden the working Mach number range of the engine and improve the performance of the engine at high Mach number. The pre-cooled turbo-rocket combined cycle propulsion scheme of NUAA-PTRE, proposed in this paper meets the working requirements of full speed range from Ma 0–5 and full airspace from 0–30 km, and can be used to support the application of next generation aircraft.