Thrust is the force which moves any aircraft through the air.

Thrust is generated by the propulsion system of the aircraft. Different propulsion systems develop thrust in different ways, but all thrust is generated through some application of Newton's third law of motion. For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. In any propulsion system, a working fluid is accelerated by the system and the reaction to this acceleration produces a force on the system. A general derivation of the thrust equation shows that the amount of thrust generated depends on the mass flow through the engine and the exit velocity of the gas. Engineers use a thermodynamic analysis of the ramjet to predict thrust and fuel flow for a particular design. In the early 1900's some of the original ideas concerning ramjet propulsion were first developed in Europe. Thrust is produced by passing the hot exhaust from the combustion of a fuel through a nozzle. The nozzle accelerates the flow, and the reaction to this acceleration produces thrust. To maintain the flow through the nozzle, the combustion must occur at apressure that is higher than the pressure at the nozzle exit. In a ramjet, the high pressure is produced by "ramming" external air into the combustor using the forward speed of the vehicle. The external air that is brought into the propulsion system becomes the working fluid, much like a turbojet engine. In a turbojet engine, the high pressure in the combustor is generated by a piece of machinery called a compressor. But there are no compressors in a ramjet. Therefore, ramjets are lighter and simpler than a turbojet. Ramjets produce thrust only when the vehicle is already moving; ramjets cannot produce thrust when the engine is stationary or static. Since a ramjet cannot produce static thrust, some other propulsion system must be used to accelerate the vehicle to a speed where the ramjet begins to produce thrust. The higher the speed of the vehicle, the better a ramjet works until aerodynamic losses become a dominant factor. The combustion that produces thrust in the ramjet occurs at a subsonic speed in the combustor. For a vehicle travelingsupersonically, the air entering the engine must be slowed to subsonic speeds by the aircraft inlet. Shock waves present in the inlet cause performance losses for the propulsion system. Above Mach 5, ramjet propulsion becomes very inefficient. The new supersonic combustion ramjet, or scramjet, solves this problem by performing the combustion supersonically in the burner. Shown above are pictures of an X-15 rocket-powered airplane with a ramjet slung underneath the body and a wind tunnel test of a ramjet inlet used on a missile. In both propulsion systems, a rocket is used to bring the ramjet up to speed before it produces thrust. Because the ramjet uses external air for combustion, it is a more efficient propulsion system for flight within the atmosphere than a rocket, which must carry all of its oxygen. Ramjets are ideally suited for very high speed flight within the atmosphere. EngineSim is an interactive Java applet which allows you to test the design of ramjet engines. You can learn the fundamentals of ramjet engine propulsion with the EngineSim simulator.

The simplest type of air-breathing reaction engine. The air enters the front of the engine at a high velocity and fuel is sprayed into it and ignited. The air entering the front of the engine forms a barrier that forces the expanding gases to leave through the nozzle at the rear. The energy added by the burning fuel accelerates the air and produces a forward thrust. Ramjet engines are used in some military unmanned aircraft that are initially boosted to a speed high enough for the engine to function. ---

The most simple jet engine has no moving parts. The speed of the jet "rams" or forces air into the engine. It is essentially a turbojet in which rotating machinery has been omitted. Its application is restricted by the fact that its compression ratio depends wholly on forward speed. The ramjet develops no static thrust and very little thrust in general below the speed of sound. As a consequence, a ramjet vehicle requires some form of assisted takeoff, such as another aircraft. It has been used primarily in guided-missile systems. Space vehicles use this type of jet. --

A ramjet, sometimes referred to as a flying stovepipe, or an athodyd which is an abbreviation of Aero thermodynamic duct, is a form of airbreathing jet engine using the engine's forward motion to compress incoming air, without a rotary compressor. Ramjets cannot produce thrust at zero airspeed, thus they cannot move an aircraft from a standstill. Ramjets therefore require assisted take off like JATOto accelerate it to a speed where it begins to produce thrust. Ramjets work most efficiently at supersonic speeds around Mach 3. This type of engine can operate up to speeds of Mach 6. Ramjets can be particularly useful in applications requiring a small and simple mechanism for highspeed use, such as missiles or artillery shells. Weapon designers are looking to use ramjet technology in artillery shells to give added range; a 120-mm mortar shell, if assisted by a ramjet, is [1] thought to be able to attain a range of 22 mi (35 km). They have also been used successfully, [2] though not efficiently, as tip jets on the end of helicopter rotors. Ramjets are frequently confused with pulsejets, which use an intermittent combustion, but ramjets employ a continuous combustion process. They are also confused with scramjets, a similar system used at supersonic speeds.

DESIGN
A ramjet is designed around its inlet. An object moving at high speed through air generates a high pressure region upstream. A ramjet uses this high pressure in front of the engine to force air through the tube, where it is heated by combusting some of it with fuel. It is then passed through a nozzle to accelerate it to supersonic speeds. This acceleration gives the ramjet forward thrust. A ramjet is sometimes referred to as a 'flying stovepipe', a very simple device comprising an air intake, a combustor, and a nozzle. Normally, the only moving parts are those within the turbopump, which pumps the fuel to the combustor in a liquid-fuel ramjet. Solid-fuel ramjets are even simpler. By way of comparison, a turbojet uses a gas turbine-driven fan to compress the air further. This gives greater compression and efficiency and far more power at low speeds, where the ram effect is weak, but is also more complex, heavier and expensive, and the temperature limits of the turbine section limit the top speed and thrust at high speed.

Inlet[edit]
Ramjets try to exploit the very high dynamic pressure within the air approaching the intake lip. An efficient intake will recover much of the freestream stagnation pressure, which is used to support the combustion and expansion process in the nozzle. Most ramjets operate at supersonic flight speeds and use one or more conical (or oblique) shock waves, terminated by a strong normal shock, to slow down the airflow to a subsonic velocity at the exit of the intake. Further diffusion is then required to get the air velocity down to a suitable level for the combustor.

Subsonic intakes on ramjets are relatively simple.

Subsonic ramjets do not need such a sophisticated inlet since the airflow is already subsonic and a simple hole is usually used. This would also work at slightly supersonic speeds, but as the air will choke at the inlet, this is inefficient. The inlet is divergent, to provide a constant inlet speed of Mach 0.5.

Combustor[edit]
As with other jet engines, the combustor's job is to create hot air, by burning a fuel with the air at essentially constant pressure. The airflow through the jet engine is usually quite high, so sheltered combustion zones are produced by using 'flame holders' to stop the flames from blowing out. Since there is no downstream turbine, a ramjet combustor can safely operate at stoichiometric fuel:air ratios, which implies a combustor exit stagnation temperature of the order of 2400 K for kerosene. Normally, the combustor must be capable of operating over a wide range of throttle settings, for a range of flight speeds/altitudes. Usually, a sheltered pilot region enables combustion to continue when the vehicle intake undergoes high yaw/pitch during turns. Other flame stabilization techniques make use of flame holders, which vary in design from combustor cans to simple flat plates, to shelter the flame and improve fuel mixing. Overfuelling the combustor can cause the normal shock within a supersonic intake system to be pushed forward beyond the intake lip, resulting in a substantial drop in engine airflow and net thrust.

Nozzles[edit]
The propelling nozzle is a critical part of a ramjet design, since it accelerates exhaust flow to produce thrust.

For a ramjet operating at a subsonic flight Mach number, exhaust flow is accelerated through a converging nozzle. For a supersonic flight Mach number, acceleration is typically achieved via aconvergent-divergent nozzle.

One of the two Bristol Thor ramjet engines on a Bristol Bloodhound missile

Performance and control[edit]

Although ramjets have been run from as low as 45 m/s (162 km/h) upwards, below about Mach 0.5, they give little thrust and are highly inefficient due to their low pressure ratios. Above this speed, given sufficient initial flight velocity, a ramjet will be self-sustaining. Indeed, unless the vehicle drag is extremely high, the engine/airframe combination will tend to accelerate to higher and higher flight speeds, substantially increasing the air intake temperature. As this could have a detrimental effect on the integrity of the engine and/or airframe, the fuel control system must reduce engine fuel flow to stabilize the flight Mach number and, thereby, air intake temperature to reasonable levels. Due to the stoichiometric combustion temperature, efficiency is usually good at high speeds (Mach 23), whereas at low speeds the relatively poor pressure ratio means the ramjets are outperformed by turbojets, or even rockets.
[8]

Ramjet types[edit]
Ramjets can be classified according to the type of fuel, liquid or solid; and the booster.
[9]

In a liquid fuel ramjet (LFRJ), hydrocarbon fuel (typically) is injected into the combustor ahead of a flameholder which stabilises the flame resulting from the combustion of the fuel with the compressed air from the intake(s). A means of pressurizing and supplying the fuel to the ramcombustor is required, which can be complicated and expensive. Arospatiale-Celerg designed an LFRJ where the fuel is forced into the injectors by an elastomer bladder which inflates progressively along the length of the fuel tank. Initially, the bladder forms a close-fitting sheath around the compressed air bottle from [10] which it is inflated, which is mounted lengthwise in the tank. This offers a lower-cost approach than [11] a regulated LFRJ requiring a turbopump and associated hardware to supply the fuel. A ramjet generates no static thrust and needs a booster to achieve a forward velocity high enough for efficient operation of the intake system. The first ramjet-powered missiles used external boosters, usually solid-propellant rockets, either in tandem, where the booster is mounted immediately aft of the ramjet, e.g. Sea Dart, or wraparound where multiple boosters are attached alongside the outside of the ramjet, e.g. SA-4 Ganef. The choice of booster arrangement is usually driven by the size of the launch platform. A tandem booster increases the overall length of the system, whereas wraparound boosters increase the overall diameter. Wraparound boosters will usually generate higher drag than a tandem arrangement.

Integrated boosters provide a more efficient packaging option, since the booster propellant is cast inside the otherwise empty combustor. This approach has been used on solid, for example SA-6 Gainful, liquid, for example ASMP, and ducted rocket, for example Meteor, designs. Integrated designs are complicated by the different nozzle requirements of the boost and ramjet phases of flight. Due to the higher thrust levels of the booster, a differently shaped nozzle is required for optimum thrust compared to that required for the lower thrust ramjet sustainer. This is usually achieved via a separate nozzle, which is ejected after booster burnout. However, designs such as Meteor feature nozzleless boosters. This offers the advantages of elimination of the hazard to launch aircraft from the [12] ejected boost nozzle debris, simplicity, reliability, and reduced mass and cost, although this must be traded against the reduction in performance compared with that provided by a dedicated booster nozzle.

Afterburner

Design[edit]

A statically mounted Pratt & Whitney J58engine with full afterburner on disposing of the last of the SR-71 fuel prior to program termination. The bright areas seen in the exhaust are known as shock diamonds.

A jet engine afterburner is an extended exhaust section containing extra fuel injectors, and since the jet engine upstream (i.e., before the turbine) will use little of the oxygen it ingests, the afterburner is, at its simplest, a type of ramjet. When the afterburner is turned on, fuel is injected and igniters are fired. The resulting combustion process increases the afterburner exit (nozzle entry) temperature significantly, resulting in a steep increase in engine net thrust. In addition to the increase in afterburner exit stagnation temperature, there is also an increase in nozzle mass flow (i.e. afterburner entry mass flow plus the effective afterburner fuel flow), but a decrease in afterburner exit stagnation pressure (owing to a fundamental loss due to heating plus friction and turbulence losses). The resulting increase in afterburner exit volume flow is accommodated by increasing the throat area of the propulsion nozzle. Otherwise, the upstream turbomachinery rematches (probably causing a compressor stall or fan surge in a turbofan application). Older designs did not have a variable

geometry nozzle but managed to operate well enough. Modern designs incorporate not only VG nozzles but multiple stages of augmentation via separate spray bars. To a first order, the gross thrust ratio (afterburning/dry) is directly proportional to the root of the stagnation temperature ratio across the afterburner (i.e. exit/entry).