Abstract
For the past several decades, research dealing with hypersonic flight regimes has been restricted mainly to military applications. Hypersonic transportation could be a possible and affordable solution to travel in the medium term and there is renewed interest from several private organisations for commercial exploitation in this direction. Various combined cycle propulsion configurations have been proposed and the present paper deals with implications for the nozzle component of a ramjet configuration as part of one such combined cycle propulsion configuration. An investigation was undertaken for a method of turbine-based propulsion which enables the hypersonic vehicle to take off under its own power and propel the aircraft under different mission profiles into ramjet operational Mach regimes. The present study details an optimal method of ramjet exhaust expansion to produce sufficient thrust to propel the vehicle into altitudes and Mach regimes where scramjet operation can be initiated. This aspect includes a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)-based geometric study to determine the optimal configuration to provide the best thrust values. The CFD parametric analysis investigated three candidate nozzles and indicated that the dual bell nozzle design produced the highest thrust values when compared to other nozzle geometries. The altitude adaptation study also validated the effectiveness of the nozzle thrust at various altitudes without compromising its thrust-producing capabilities. Computational data were validated against published experimental data, which indicated that the computed values correlated well with the experimental data.
Highlights
Hypersonic travel in recent decades has been an important area of research interest in the aerospace sector due to its potential in military and civil applications
The approach to hypersonic flight research has spanned several decades with constant improvements in performance through improvements in aerodynamics, structures, and propulsion systems leading to successively higher flight speeds
A nozzle performance study was conducted with three principal nozzles considered for ease-of-implementation for a hypersonic combined cycle propulsion system consisting of a turbo-jet, ramjet, and scramjet configuration for flight speeds up to Mach 8
Summary
Hypersonic travel in recent decades has been an important area of research interest in the aerospace sector due to its potential in military and civil applications. Hypersonic air-breathing propulsion vehicles can offer a replacement for the conventional subsonic modes of commercial transport with a new class of flight vehicles that can offer time-saving means of transportation for long-range flights. The approach to hypersonic flight research has spanned several decades with constant improvements in performance through improvements in aerodynamics, structures, and propulsion systems leading to successively higher flight speeds. Powered by two Pratt and Whitney J-58 engines, the aircraft was capable of achieving Mach. 3.5 flight speeds, making it the fastest air-breathing aircraft to take off under its own power [1]. Perhaps the most noteworthy aeronautical research effort in history is the rocket-powered hypersonic research aircraft X-15 that holds the record for the fastest manned aircraft achieving a speed
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