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A Hypersonic Hybrid Vehicle

Apekshit Shukul
Miss. Ruchi Mall
Mechanical Engineering
SVIT, Vasad, Gujarat

ABSTRACT:
An aircraft with Scramjet flies at speed greater than Mach 5. Turbojet.s efficiency
is less at higher Mach speed. We propose the use of Turbojet with Scramjet to
start the plane from rest and to fly it at a speed greater than Mach 5. Due to less
density of air at higher altitudes, efficiency of scramjet reduces. For increasing its
efficiency, we propose the use of Plasma and Double delta wings. Plasma reduces
friction by deviating streamlines of air in scramjet and double delta wings give
good lift. By this innovation, the plane can fly at Mach 15 to Mach 20.

INTRODUCTION: One of the greatest aeronautical research challenges is flying at


hypersonic speed
-NASA
The question arises, why should one fly that fast? Four reasons can be
enumerated.
1. For faster intercontinental travel.
2. To allow seamless entry to space.
3. For invincible spy planes and strategic bombers and
4. The last, but probably the most important is the human being.s desire to
constantly push the limits.
Mach is the unit to express the speed. A regular passenger plane flies at the
speed of 0.8 Mach. The military plane flies at Mach 2, Concord flies at Mach 2.02
and the fastest jet . SR-17 Black bird flies at Mach 3.2. Speeds greater than Mach
5 are called HYPERSONIC SPEED. Hypersonic speed is defined as that which
exceeds Mach 5 which is equivalent to about 3600 miles per hour. Hyper- X
program of NASA opens up frontier for air breathing aircraft with speed measured
in hypersonic zone. The fastest rocket plane X-15 flied once at Mach 6.6 way back
in 1960. Flying at hypersonic speed is difficult.
Conventional turbojet engines, which are now a days used in most commercial
aircrafts and military jets, cannot be used at flying speeds above Mach 3.This is
where the RAMJET engines come in. These can be used far in to the hypersonic
area, i.e. at speeds of Mach 5 and over. They combine a greater range with largest
possible weight and more compact construction than systems currently in use.
They utilize atmosphere.s available oxygen to burn fuel. Its fuel consumption
decreases with flight speed and approaches reasonable values between the
speed Mach 2 and Mach 4.
The Ramjet engines could easily operate in the Mach 7 -9 regions. Above this
speed the engines known as SCRAMJETS come in picture. The engines with
subsonic combustion are called Ramjet; those with supersonic combustion are
Scramjets (Supersonic Combustion Ramjets). Scramjets open speed regime up to
Mach 20.

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CONSTRUCTION AND WORKING OF SCRAMJET AND TURBOJET:
TURBOJET:
A gas turbine engine or a turbojet consists of five major sections: an inlet duct, a
compressor, a combustion chamber, a turbine wheel, and an exhaust duct. In
addition to the five major sections, each gas turbine is equipped with an
accessory section, a fuel system, a lubrication system, and an ignition system.
Some engines might also incorporate a water injecting system, an afterburner
system, a variable-area exhaust nozzle and system, a variable-geometry
compressor, a fan, a free-power turbine, a propeller-reduction gearbox, and other
additional systems and components to improve or change engine operation,
performance, and usage.

Construction and Working of Turbojet:


The front, or inlet, duct is almost entirely open to permit outside air to enter the
front of the engine. The compressor works on the incoming air and delivers it to
the combustion section. The compressor is basically a cone-shaped cylinder with
small fan blades attached in rows. As the air is forced through the compression
stage its pressure rises significantly. In some engines, the pressure of the air can
rise by a factor of 30. This high-pressure air then enters the combustion area,
where a ring of fuel injectors injects a steady stream of fuel. The fuel is generally
kerosene, jet fuel, propane or natural gas. The air entering in the combustion area
is highly pressurized and moving at hundreds of miles per hour. A flame has to be
kept burning continuously in that environment. The piece that solves this problem
is called a "flame holder," or sometimes a "can." (Fig.1). The can is a hollow,
perforated piece of heavy metal. Half of the can in cross-section is shown below:

Fig. 1
The injectors are shown with red pipes. Compressed air enters through the
perforations. The air fuel mixture is then ignited by devices similar to spark plugs.
When the mixture is lighted, the igniters can be turned off, as the burning process
will continue without further assistance as long as the engine is supplied with
proper fuel/air ratio. The fuel air mixture burns at relatively constant pressure
with only 25 percent of the air taking part in the actual combustion process. The

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balance of the air is mixed with the products of combustion for cooling before the
gases enter the turbine wheel. The turbine extracts a major portion of energy in
the gas stream and uses this energy to turn the compressor and accessories. The
turbines, the shaft and the compressor all turn as a single unit. (Fig. 2)

Fig. 2 Turbines, Shaft and Compressor of Turbojet


After leaving the turbine, there is still enough pressure remaining to force the hot
gases through the exhaust duct and jet nozzle at the rear of the engine at very
high speeds. The engines thrust comes from taking a large mass of air in at the
front end and expelling it from the tailpipe at a much higher speed than it had
when it entered the compressor. Thrust, then, is equal to mass flow rate times
change in velocity.
Limitations of Turbojet:
In conventional jet engines thrust is created in three stages: Intake (through flight
build up) and compressor provide a building up of pressure, in the combustion
chamber air is enriched with energy as fuel is burnt. In the turbine and the nozzle
the air expands, while the inner energy of the gas is changed into kinetic energy
and thrust.
As flight speeds increase, the quality of the engine process deteriorates. This can
be demonstrated with the help of fuel specific impulses. This thermodynamic
quantity describes the created pressure per fuel mass. This value decreases with
increasing speed.
In other words: At higher Mach numbers the fuel consumption increases much
more than thrust can be generated. Above Mach 3 the fuel specific impulse of a
scramjet engine is better than that of a turbojet engine. The compressor is the
main reason for this. This turbojet component, which has several stages, rotors
and stators, causes losses. Furthermore turning parts wheels do not contribute to
engine processes at high Mach speeds. With the flight speed the pressure,
created in the air intake through flight build up rises considerably. The share the
compressor contributes to the entire compression sinks accordingly: At Mach 1
the value is about 50 percent, at Mach 2 just 15 percent and at Mach 3 less than
four percent. From about three times the speed of sound the compression created
by the speed is enough to keep the engine process going. The compressor is
really not needed at higher speeds. Additionally the rise in temperature caused by

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the build up is considerable. The build up temperature at Mach 8 - depending on
the altitude - is between 3,000 and 4,000 degrees Kelvin (between 2,727 and
3,727 C), at Mach 12 about 8,000 degrees Kelvin. Conventional compressors
cannot be used at such high temperatures, because the compressor blades
cannot be cooled and materials, which are able to withstand these temperatures,
do not exist.
SCRAMJET ENGINE:
A scramjet engine is an air breathing engine system which does not have any
moving parts. At high flying speeds air in the intake is compressed so much just
by the forward movement that a compressor, which is needed in turbojet engines,
is not necessary. This is the main difference between Scramjets and conventional
turbojet engines, which are basically made up of five components: intake,
compressor, combustion chamber, turbine and nozzle If in the logical sequence
compressor is omitted, turbine becomes superfluous, the sole purpose of which is
to drive compressor. This is how the scramjet engine is far simpler in
construction, consisting only of intake, combustion chamber and nozzle.
Construction and working of scramjet
Scramjets (supersonic-combustion ramjets) are those in which the airflow through
the whole engine remains supersonic. It is mechanically simple, but vastly more
complex aerodynamically than a jet engine. The engine consists of a supersonic
diffuser, a subsonic diffuser section, a combustion chamber and a discharge
nozzle section (fig. 3).
The function of supersonic and subsonic diffusers is to convert the kinetic energy
of the entering air into a pressure rise. The scramjet engine operates as follows.
Air from the atmosphere enters the engine, and, after its velocity has been
reduced and its static pressure increased by supersonic diffuser, the air enters
the subsonic diffuser wherein it is compressed further. The air then flows into the
combustion chamber, wherein the fuel burners are located, and here it is heated
to a high temperature (1500C to 2000C) by the continuous combustion of fuel.
The highly heated products of combustion are then allowed to expand with a
speed exceeding that of the entering air. Because of the rate of increase in the
momentum of the working fluid through the engine, a thrust is developed in the
direction of flight.

Fig. 3 Line diagram of Scramjet


With the scramjet the mixing of air and fuel is considerably bad because of high
speeds at the entrance to the combustion chamber between Mach 2 and Mach 3,
at the exist between Mach 1.2 and Mach 1.6. This makes combustion not very
effective. For this reason the combustion chamber has to be elongated to
guarantee satisfactory mixing. In a scramjet powered aircraft, there must be tight
integration between the airframe and the engine. Scramjet technology is
challenging because only limited testing can be performed in ground facilities.
Long duration, full-scale testing requires flight test speeds above Mach 8. X-43
Hyper-X, NASA's tested for the scramjet, serves this purpose. To get the engine to

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that speed, some other power has to be used. In the Hyper-X, this will be provided
by OSC's Pegasus booster. It must be noted here that scramjets are good only for
sustaining hypersonic speeds, not for achieving them from zero.
Limitations of scramjet:
Aircrafts flying at speeds greater than Mach 3 have to fly at a great height. This
is done because of several reasons. Few of them can be enumerated below:
i. At higher altitude density of air is less so the resistance of air experienced
by aircraft is less.
ii. To avoid radar waves
iii. To avoid bullets of antiaircraft guns.
An aircraft with scramjet will have less efficiency at greater heights. This is
because the scramjet is an air breathing engine. As the density of air is less, less
compression is created at the intake as compared to that at lower altitude. And
as less compression is created, efficiency directly reduces.
Apart from this there is one more difficulty in the operation of Scramjet and that
is, neither ramjet nor scramjet can operate at speeds below Mach 2 or 3. If the
vehicle is to start of its own a combination of the scramjet engine with other
engine systems becomes necessary. Since the compressor is lacking in a
scramjet engine there is pressure built-up and airflow in the engine when the
vehicle is not moving. This means: There is no air breathing engine that can cover
the full operational range from take-off to hypersonic speeds. But, a hypersonic
aircraft cannot just take off at Mach 3. It has to take off and cover the whole
speed range. This makes it necessary to accelerate the vehicle by other means
until the ramjet/scramjet engine can kick in at around Mach 3. This can be done
with the help of a booster rocket or by mounting this plane blow other plane. When
this plane reaches speed of Mach 2 or 3, scramjets ignite and the plane with
scramjet is released which is free to fly at speeds between Mach 15 -20. But this
complete process is very expensive and time consuming.
Following two challenges have emerged by now.
1. At higher altitudes, the density of air is less so mass of air entering the
scramjet would be less thereby reducing its efficiency.
2. Scramjets cannot start when the plane is at rest i.e. at speed 0 Mach.
INNOVATION:
1st challenge:
As we know by now that Scramjet has the capacity to fly at the speed of Mach 15
to Mach 20. But the efficiency of Scramjet greatly depends on the amount of air
intake .moreover at higher altitudes density of air is less .So the total mass of air
entering the scramjet would also be less and hence less compression is created
which reduces its efficiency but still it is more than turbojet engine.
So to enhance the capability of Scramjet engine, it is desirable to increase air
intake at higher altitudes. This paper proposes the use of
-Plasma
-Double Delta Wings
Use of plasma

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To increase the working or efficiency of a scramjet, the fourth state of matter
plasma can be used. Plasma being an ionised state of matter, can be radiated and
possess the properties of friction or resistance to air.
Plasma consists of a collection of free-moving electrons and ions - atoms that
have lost electrons. Energy is needed to strip electrons from atoms to make
plasma. The energy can be of various origins: thermal, electrical, or light
(ultraviolet light or intense visible light from a laser). With insufficient sustaining
power, plasmas recombine into neutral gas.
Plasma can be accelerated and steered by electric and magnetic fields which
allows it to be controlled and applied. Plasma research is yielding a greater
understanding of the universe. Plasma temperatures and densities range from
relatively cool and tenuous to very hot and dense. (Fig.4) Ordinary solids, liquids,
and gases are both electrically neutral and too cool or dense to be in a plasma
state (Fig 5).

Fig.4. Graph of Temperature vs. Density for Plasma

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Fig.5. Comparison of solid, liquid, gas and plasma
Due to these properties of plasma, it can be utilized to increase the working
efficiency of scramjet. An aircraft which does not use plasma radiation creates
more friction at its nose thereby increasing drag to a great extent. (Fig. 6)
Consider that at the nose of the plane on which scramjet is placed; we place a
device which generates and radiates plasma in the direction of motion of plane.
This radiation should take place up to certain specified distance. Now at the tip of
the plasma radiation, the friction takes place and the air is cut by this plasma tip.
As air is being cut by plasma tip and not by the nose of the plane the resistance of
air or drag reduces to a great extent. Moreover this plasma can regulate the
stream lines of air is such a way that the body of plane has minimum friction. But
along with this, plasma regulates the streamlines in such a way that maximum
amount of air gets compressed and enters the scramjet at relatively high velocity.
Thus this phenomenon can help the working of scramjet as well as reduce the
friction.

Fig 6 Aircraft without Plasma

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Use of double delta wings
Delta or double delta wings are used in aircrafts flying at speeds more than Mach
2. Here we use double delta wings which give lift to the plane as well as it is used
to guide the streamlines of air. The scramjets are placed at the junction of the two
deltas. The first delta is used to divert the streamlines and the second delta gives
lift and balance.
Steps to increase the mass of air entering the Scramjet.
In following steps it can be seen that how plasma and double delta wings
increase the amount of air entering the scramjet. There are mainly three
streamlines of air which are shown by red, green and purple lines in the diagram
(Fig.7). Moreover it can be clearly seen that how do they deviate in the following
steps.
1. When the plasma is radiated it cuts through the air and causes disturbance
in form of shock waves. These waves in turn cause change in path of the
nearby streamlines and thus the streamlines of air deviate from straight
path. These deviated streamlines are shown by red arrows.
2. We use a double delta wing in this plane. This is a very important part
because of the following reasons:
When the air reaches the first delta, it deviates and its motion is parallel to
the sides of the first delta. (.lines are shown in purple ink.)
Now the scramjets are located at the point where the first delta and the
second delta meet.
This is done because the stream lines which are deviated by the first delta
which are running parallel to its sides are directly introduced in the
scramjet.
3. Moreover certain streamlines are not deviated from the path because they
are far away from the point of impact of plasma with air (These are shown
by .green arrows..)
4. Now scramjets are located at such a place below the wing that these two
types of treamlines .deviated. and .non-deviated. meet.
Due to this maximum amount of air will be entering in the scramjet with
large amount of pressure.
Thus the scramjet can attain greater speed and can ignite at lesser speed.
Due to radiation of plasma, the streamlines are deviated as discussed earlier and
so they become parallel to the surface of the body of the plane. ( Fig.7). As their
motion becomes parallel to the fuselage of the plane, very less amount of
resistance or force of friction due to air is experienced. Hence the plane can move
smoothly without much resistance of air.

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Fig 7 Aircraft with Plasma and Double Delta Wings
2nd challenge:
The basic limitation of scramjet engine is that it cannot start from rest. Moreover
the engine will stop when the plane comes below the speed of Mach 2. So there is
a need of gas turbine engine to be used in the range of Mach 0 to Mach 2 or 3. The
gas turbine engine should be located in such a place that it does not hinder the
function of Scramjet. So the most suitable place for it is in the fuselage.
Location of Gas Turbine Engine:
i. There is one gas turbine engine in the fuselage behind the cockpit. (Fig8.)
ii. There are three ports below the cockpit for inlet of air to the gas turbine
engine. The air is sucked by the turbojet engine through these ports.
iii. When the scramjet starts, the flap on the ports close so that no air enters
gas turbine engine and is diverted in desired way.
Sequence of operations :
i. The gas turbine engine starts the plane from rest and takes the plane up to
Mach 2.
ii. Now at Mach 2, the scramjet ignites and covers the range of speed up to
Mach 15-20.
iii. Simultaneously plasma is radiated and efficiency of scramjet is increased
so that speed of plane goes beyond Mach 20.
iv. Similarly while landing when the plane reaches Mach 3 or Mach 2, gas
turbine engine is ignited and plane lands on its support. At this time the
scramjets are not working.

Fig 8.Aircraft with Scramjet and


Turbojet.

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CONCLUSION:
Reviewing the functioning of turbojet engine, and scramjet engine, the
combination of both is very useful in flying the plane at hypersonic speed from
rest. With the use of plasma and double delta wings, scramjet.s efficiency can be
highly enhanced. Thus the challenge of flying at hypersonic speed at higher
altitude and space traveling can be met.
REFERENCE:
1. Trinklein, F.E. and Huffer, C.M., Modern Space Science, New York. Holt, Rinehart
and Winston Inc. 1961
2. Anderson John, D. JR, Fundamentals of Aerodynamics.
3. Alasu, Valan, A, Turbo Machines, Vikas publishing house (Pvt) LTD.
4. Khajuria, P.R. and Dubey, P.R., Gas turbines and propulsive system, Dhanpat Rai
Publications (P) LTD. (1992, 97)
5. Yahya, S.M, Turbines, compressors and fans, New Delhi, Tata McGraw Hill
Publishing Company limited. (1983), reprint (1997)
6. Miles, E.R.C., Supersonic Aerodynamics (A theoretical introduction), New York,
Dover Publications, Inc. (1950).
WEBSITES:
www.nasa.org ,
www.jetpropulsion.com ,
www.plasma.com
www.aviationhistory.com/engines/ramjet.htm,
www.space.com/missionlaunches/hyshot_020816.html,
www.physics.uq.edu.au/lp/lasdiag/scram.html,
oea.larc.nasa.gov/PAIS/Hyper-X.html,
www.mech.uq.edu.au/hyper/hyshot,
www.time.com/time/2002/inventions/tra_scramjet.html,
news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci/tech/newsid_1629000/1629739.stm.

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