An Experimental Investigation of Ejector Ramjet Performance at Static Conditions

Date
2024-09-16
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Abstract
The performance of a methane-fueled ejector ramjet (ERJ) equipped with the Atlantis Intake System (AIS) was tested at static conditions. For static tests with no forward velocity, the AIS ERJ successfully entrained and mixed the stagnant surrounding air to create a stoichiometric mixture of 17.2 when the Mach 2 primary jet’s total pressure was 625 ± 25 kPa. Combustion was most stable when the air-fuel mixture was lean. The maximum positive thrust and specific impulse were 22 ± 3 and 189 ± 33 s, respectively, when the primary jet total pressure was 400 kPa. Engine performance was compared to a 1D Ejector Ramjet (1D-ERAM) solver and showed good agreement with a 95% confidence interval during combustion. The solver did not accurately predict the combustion limits of the engine. Additional tests were performed with a nitrogen-diluted fuel jet, which extended the range of conditions for which the ERJ could sustain combustion. The engine demonstrated increased thrust when the primary jet’s total pressure was increased. The inverse Damkohler number was investigated as a tool for predicting engine blowout and provided improved resolution of the engine’s combustion limits, which could be applied to the 1D-ERAM solver
Description
Keywords
Ejector Ramjet, Aerospace Propulsion, Combustion, Experiment
Citation
Long, L. (2024). An experimental investigation of ejector ramjet performance at static conditions (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca.