Methods of Increasing and Evaluating the Performance of a Ramjet Combustor under Conditions of Attached Air Supply with a Thrust Meter
V. M. Levin, L. L. Kartovitskii, A. A. Yakovlev
Moscow Aviation Institute (National Research University), Moscow, Russia
Keywords: combustion chamber, ramjet engine, fire test, attached air duct, thrust meter, system of distributed supply of liquid fuel, vortex formation, thermal protection, adjustable nozzle
Abstract
This paper presents an analysis of approaches to ensuring the performance of a ramjet combustor using an unconventional method of measuring the axial force in testing a liquid-fuel combustor model under flight conditions simulated by a fired heater. The thrust and drag of the combustor model were measured in fire tests on an attached air duct using an axial force meter. Thrust is a parameter that characterizes the energy potential of any engine. In the conventional method, lengthy multi-parameter studies and calculations of performance are required to get an idea of the thrust and economic characteristics of a heat engine. The new method allows one to determine the effect of any parameter or structural element on the physical process in a combustor in units of the thrust force and evaluate the change in any parameter by the thrust level directly in fire tests. Using the proposed thrust measurement system at an initial stage of testing, one can clarify the direction of the search for the organization of the workflow and reduce the amount of intermediate calculations, saving a huge amount of time and money. This, combined with measurements of static pressure along the length of the combustor, allows a guaranteed prediction of the direction of search for improving the workflow efficiency. The ways to improve the workflow efficiency in a ramjet combustor using a thrust meter to evaluate the overall engine performance under conditions of limited technical and methodical possibilities in fire tests of the combustor are discussed.
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