Skip to main content

Scramjet engine – making hypersonic travel possile

Hypersonic  travel seems to be impossible now a days, but it be possible after 10-15 years from now on. Scramjet (supersonic combusting ramjet) is similar to Ramjet except in this combustion takes place in supersonic airflow. Unlike the Ramjet, in which air was decelerated at subsonic velocity to be combusted; Scramjet combusts the air in supersonic speed which give Scramjet very high speed, in the range of MACH 12(14000 km/hr) to MACH 24(25000 km/hr).
Working of a Scramjet engine
Scramjet like any other jet engine , uses fuel and oxidiser to protect thrust. The design of Scramjet consists of a converging inlet, in which incoming air is compressed using high pressure in front of it; a combustor ; and a diverging nozzle to produce accelerated thrust. Scramjet like Ramjet does not use any rotating parts, therefore it require high kinetic energy of hypersonic flow to compress the incoming air ; and must be accelerated to high velocity, like Mach 4. Due to supersonic flow of air, fuel must be injected, mixed, ignited and burned within milliseconds in combustion chamber.
Scramjet has some advantage over Turbojet engine as it does not need to carry oxygen, and no rotating parts made it easier to manufacture. Scramjet has a very high specific impulse than Turbojet. Specific impulse is a chnage in momentum per unit of propellant. Rocket produce only 600 seconds of specific impulse, while Ramjet produce between 1000 and 4000 seconds.
Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) image of the NASA X-43A
 with scramjet attached to the underside at Mach 7
There are lot of Scramjet aircraft prototype being tested like NASA X-43A, Boeing X-51, North American X-15, and Chinese WU-14. Fastest scramjet  ever tested is NASA X-43A which achieved the speed of MACH 9.6.

Many countries like India, China, Russia and Brazil are conducting test and working on the Scramjet engine. Russian “GLL HOLOD” was the first to flew in 1991 at a speed of MACH 5.8. Brazil 14-X, India Brahmos-2, HSTDV and AVATAR RLV are in the progress of developing.
NASA X-43A world fastest scramjet aircraft achieving
speed upto MACH 9.6.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A new future weightless Insulation material

A totally new insulation material has been developed that is totally weightless but can still withstand high temperature, that would not be tolerated by other materials and destroy it. The porous aerogel is at least 99 percent open space , with the rest made up of an atomically thin ceramic called hexagonal boron nitride. The design proves extremely durable under high temperatures and rapid temperature shifts of over 1,000 degrees Celsius.  “It’s notoriously hard to make materials that are not just lightweight, but can also be heavily heat resistant,” says Deep Jariwala, an engineer at the University of Pennsylvania.  The new ultralight insulator may be especially well suited to shielding components on spacecraft , which must endure extreme temperature swings when turning toward or away from the sun or re-entering Earth’s atmosphere, he says.  The aerogel comprises a network of tiny air pockets, with each pocket separated by two atomically thin layers ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Top 3 Fastest Hydrogen Powered Car

When it comes to racing using hydrogen powered car, this top three car will win the show. Hydrogen powered car uses hydrogen gas as a fuel which combust with oxygen to form water. #3. Aston Martin Rapide :  British luxury marque ASTON MARTIN  introduced AM Rapide S in early 2010.  The Rapide is powered by a 5,935 cc V12 engine , producing 470 bhp and torque of 443 lbf·ft (601 N·m). It is Rear-wheel drive  and has a six- speed Touchtronic automatic. The Rapide can reach a top speed of 188.5 mph (303 km/h),  and accelerate 0-100 km/h (62 mph) in 5.3 seconds, or 0-60 mph (97 km/h) in 5.0 seconds. #2. BMW H2R : This car built by BMW uses liquid hydrogen as a fuel. The H2R’s 6.0-liter V-12 engine, which draws on BMW 's Valvetronic  and Double-Vanos  technology, is based on the 760i’s gasoline-fueled powerplant. This H2-powered high performer generates 232 horsepower (173 kW), helping it t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Compact Fusion Reactor in the size of a truck

Think about a truck supplying the energy demand of a whole city. Well it seems to be the thing of the future and definitely of not this century. But Lockheed Martin is working on building a truck size nuclear fusion reactor that will ready before next 10 years. The reactor which will be small enough to fit on the truck will be able to power the city of 100,000 people.It will revolutionize the Earth energy requirement and production. The reactor will fuse two hydrogen atoms into a single helium atoms, releasing a energy ten times than the regular nuclear reactor. Fusion will offer a cleaner, safer source of energy. It will use a "magnetic bottle" to contain the hundreds of million of degreed created by the nuclear fusion  reactor. It will be useful in spacecraft to mars, and power generation in aircraft carrier and large ship, and also in puring large quantites of water. It can provide plane will unlimited range. To know more about this topic, clink on the link below: ...
Post a Comment
Read more