English

DTIC ADA032389: Heat Addition to a Supersonic Flow.

Advanced propulsion engines of the future, which may fly at Mach numbers greater than five, will depend upon the supersonic heat addition process for efficient operation. In supersonic heat addition, the gas flow remains supersonic before, during, and after the heating process. The advanages of supersonic heat addition compared to subsonic heat addition are a lower static temperature and a lower static pressure for a given energy input. Two supersonic heat addition modes are available. One is the subsonic diffusion flame propagating into a supersonic flow where the normal or perpendicular component of the flow velocity with respect to the flame front is subsonic. The disadvantage of the subsonic diffusion flame is the relatively long combustor length resulting from the subsonic normal component of the flow velocity. The other sueprsonic heat addition mode is a weak detonation wave where the thermal wave or flame front is supersonic relative to the heated and unheated gas. The purpose of this effort was to experimentally investigate the weak detonation wave by simulating it in a gas flow and a water flow.

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