Experimental and numerical investigation of a solid-fuel rocket scramjet combustor

A new scramjet configuration using solid fuel as propellant is proposed, namely, the solid-fuel rocket scramjet. Experimental and numerical investigation of the solid-fuel rocket scramjet combustor was conducted to evaluate its performance. The experiment simulated a flight environment of Mach 4 at a 17 km altitude. Magnesium-based solid fuel was usedas propellantinthis study. The results show that secondary combustion occursinsupersonic combustor. The combustion efficiency of the propellant is about 65%, and the total pressure recovery is about 0.5. These imply that the scramjet configuration using solid fuel as a propellant is feasible. The results of the numerical analysis show that a normal shock wave isgenerated in the core flow of the combustor, and this is due to all of the fuel-rich gas being injected in the same cross section.