AIAA High Speed Air Breathing Propulsion Technical Committee

High Speed Air Breathing Propulsion -

2011 Year in Review
by Dora Musielak December 1, 2011



Despite unforeseen challenges, economic woes, and natural disasters, 2011 was a pivotal year for
high-speed air-breathing propulsion. What will we remember? The following are highlights of
some of the most important events that shaped this technology in 2011.
X-51A Waverider Aiming High and Fast!

The X-51A waverider
1

attempted its second
powered flight on June 13,
2011. At 40.3 seconds after
launch, the hypersonic
vehicle experienced a
combustor/inlet un-start
and it continued to fly
controlled, but unpowered,
for an additional 97
seconds before impacting
the Pacific Ocean.
Exceptional telemetry data
was acquired all the way to
splashdown.
The X-51A vehicles
sub-systems worked as
expected: B-52 safe
separation, boost, booster
separation, guidance and
control, flight actuators, battery power sub-system, fuel system pressurization, and flight test
instrumentation.


1
The X-51A program is a collaborative effort of the U.S. Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the Defense
Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), Boeing, and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. The 7.9 m-long X-51A
WaveRider, fueled by JP-7 jet fuel and powered by Pratt & Whitney Rocketdynes SJY61scramjet engine, achieved
aviation history May 26, 2010 by making the longest-ever scramjet-powered flight.
2

The X-51 investigation team concentrated on assessing both inlet (forebody/inlet isolator)
and engine characteristics that were not as expected from data gathered both on the ground and
on first flight. During boost, the flow through the inlet started (began flowing air) at a later
than expected Mach number, and higher than anticipated combustion-driven pressures were seen
during the engine start sequence. Inlet/forebody geometry, fuel system delivery to combustor,
and clean air combustion characteristics (vs. ground combustion vitiation effects) were all
examined as possible causes for the un-start. It is likely that several separate causal factors
combined to cause the un-start. An extensive fault tree was developed with appropriate
tests/analyses identified to aid in fault tree node closure.
Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne and Boeing built four X-51A flight test vehicles with the
program goal of reaching Mach 6 in scramjet power. Two vehicles remain. In developing new
hypersonic propulsion concepts like the hydrocarbon-fueled scramjet, all test flights are deemed
successful in the sense that every attempt is an opportunity to find anomalies that need to be
addressed before the next flight. We agree with Mr. Charlie Brink, the Air Force Research
Laboratorys X-51A program manager, who once said Every time we test this new and exciting
technology we get that much closer to success.

Aerojet's TriJet Hypersonic Engine A New Idea

Aerojet unveiled a novel combined-cycle propulsion concept to achieve seamless operation from
Mach 0 to 6+. Known as TriJet engine, the turbine-based combined cycle (TBCC) concept is
attractive for high speed ISR/Strike Platform applications, bridging the existing thrust gap
between available turbojets and dual-mode ramjet/scramjets with an ejector ramjet.
The TriJet enhanced TBCC propulsion system consists of a common 3D inward-turning
inlet with simple variable geometry, feeding compressed inlet air to three synergistically
interacting propulsion systems: an Off-the Shelf (OTS) heritage turbojet, a State-of-the-Art
(SOA) ejector ramjet (ERJ), and a near SOA core-burning dual-mode ramjet (DMRJ). In contrast
to classical wall burning, core-burning combustion is initiated in the combustor center and not at
the combustor wall. Experiments have shown that this concept reduces the heat load to the wall
by 40- to 50%. The TriJet has two exhaust nozzle systems: one nozzle for the turbine engine only
assuring minimal changes to its heritage design, and one nozzle that combines the effluents of
the ERJ with the DMRJ. Using a patented concept called Sustained Aero Choke (SAC), the
second nozzle is used for thrust enhancement in the Mach regime 2.5 to 4.5 where the DMRJ
produces little or no thrust.


3

Dr. Adam Siebenhaar, Director of Hypersonic Propulsion at Aerojet, stated that the
innovative Aerojet TriJet has three significant attributes exceeding competing TBCC solutions:
(1) Positive thrust margins can be achieved over the entire Mach 0 to 6+ flight regime without
new high risk technological innovations; (2) Sustained cruise speed capability in the Mach 3 to 4
range to extend vehicle operating range, and the associated ability to make turning maneuvers
more practical; and (3) The option to configure and extensively operate a single engine
demonstrator vehicle up to Mach 4 with an available Turbine Engine and a State-of-Art Ejector
Ramjet. Dr. Siebenhaar further added that this robust vehicle can then be equipped with a large
scale scramjet and used for envelop expansion into the higher Mach flight regime, thereby
overcoming the ground test facility limitations as they exist now and the foreseeable future.
TriJet Impacts

With the TriJet Aerojet has envisioned a propulsion system which delivers high thrust
over the entire flight regime of an ISR/Strike mission capable platform:










The currently existing TBCC issues are eliminated by the TriJet as follows:
Small Transonic Thrust Margin - Turbojet thrust is assisted with ERJ thrust.
Thrust Gap to DMRJ - ERJ and SAC provide reliable thrust.
DMRJ Cruise Thermal Management Margin - Core-Burning provides robust margin.
No full scale ground test facilities available - Two step approach:
o Build Mach 6+ Platform and at first operate w/ OTS TE and SoA ERJ up to Mach 3.5.
o Install DMRJ and Use Vehicle for Envelope Expansion in Flight.
Payload dispense at Mach 6 - Low dynamic pressure (Q) flight regime can be reliably
achieved with the primary thrusters of the ERJ which can produce thrust independent of Q.
The TriJet propulsion concept has the potential to advance high-speed intelligence, surveillance
and reconnaissance (ISR) or strike aircraft. TriJet is believed to be mature enough to initiate a
program with a subscale demonstrator; it just needs a customer ready to team up with Aerojet.
Flight Regime: Mach 0 to 6+
OTS Turbojet: M 0.0 to 2.5
SOA ERJ: M 0.0 to 4.5
SAC: M 3.4 to 4.5
Near SOW DMRJ: M 3.5 to 6+
Step 1: Learn How
to Operate Vehicle
w/ TE & ERJ

Step 2: Install
DMRJ & Expand
Envelope in Flight

4

AFOSR/NASA National Center for Hypersonic Combined Cycle Propulsion
Improving the Future of Hypersonic Flight

The National Center for Hypersonic Combined Cycle Propulsion (CHCCP)
2
, funded by AFOSR
and NASA, completed its second year of research. Under the direction of Dr. James McDaniel,
professor at the University of Virginia (U.Va), the objectives of the CHCCP Center are to seek
an improved physical understanding and modeling capability of three combined-cycle flow
regimes: turbine-to-ramjet mode transition, ramjet-to-scramjet mode transition, and
hypervelocity operation.
In addition to U.Va, the CHCCP is comprised of teams from industry, government, and
academia, including Boeing, ATK GASL, the National Institute of Standards and Technology
(NIST), North Carolina State University, the University of Pittsburgh, George Washington
University, Cornell University, Stanford University, Michigan State University, and the State
University of New York at Buffalo. Several members of the AIAA High Speed Air Breathing
Propulsion Technical Committee (HSABPTC) are also part of the CHCCP working group.

To date, researchers at the CHCCP Center have
developed a dual-mode combustion wind tunnel to
simulate Mach 5 flight conditions, incorporating new
laser diagnostic tools such as TDLAS and PIV. Modeling
of experimental data uses both RANS and LES/RANS
methods. Researchers are also developing advanced FDF
methods and chemical kinetic models are developed to
compute hypersonic turbulent reacting flows. The
following are highlights of the most recent results
achieved by the different CHCCP team members.
In the low-speed mode transition, the inlet mode
transition (IMX) facility at NASA Glenn provided data
which was modeled by Boeing, in both the supersonic
mode and the back-pressured mode simulating a turbine
in the flowpath. North Carolina State University
developed an immersed boundary technique for
simulating the flow through bleed passages in the inlet,
used to control shock-boundary-layer interactions.
In the high-speed mode transition, the University
of Virginia developed a unique dual-mode combustion
wind tunnel which simulates Mach 5 flight conditions.
The tunnel is an electrically-heated clean-air facility that
was designed with optical access for non-intrusive measurements. Measurements of hydrogen-air
combustion were conducted at the facility at conditions in which the reaction transitions from
scramjet mode to ramjet mode, increasing the fuel equivalence ratio. Modeling of the data was

2
The CHCCP is one of three NASA/AFOSR centers funded to advance research in air-breathing propulsion,
materials and structures, and boundary layer control for aircraft that can travel at Mach 5 and faster. The joint
investment of $30 million over five years has the objective of supporting basic science and applied research that
improves our understanding of hypersonic flight.

5

done by NCSU with both RANS and
LES/RANS methods. Measurements
were made in the tunnel by Stanford
University using the Tunable Diode
Laser Absorption Spectroscopy
(TDLAS) technique, and by UVa using
Stereoscopic Particle Imaging
Velocimetry (SPIV). Of particular
interest is the effect of combustion on
fuel-air mixing. SPIV images revealed
that the streamwise vorticies generated by the ramp fuel injector, which are responsible for
efficient fuel-air mixing, are weakened due to pressure rise in the base of the fuel injector.
Additional laser diagnostics available for flowfield measurements are the UVa Tunable
Diode Laser Absorption Tomography (TDLAT) technique and the George Washington
University Coherent Anti-Stokes Raman Spectroscopy (CARS) technique. Upcoming
experiments will utilize a cavity
flameholder for ethylene-air
combustion.
In the hypervelocity regime,
utilizing the NASA HYPULSE
facility, ATK/GASL constructed a
model of the UVa flowpath designed
for optical access. Non-intrusive
methods to be used in HYPULSE
include TDLAS and fuel-plume
imaging (FPI). Researchers plan to
obtain measurements at Mach 5 for comparison with the UVa facility, and later at Mach 7 and 10
conditions.
Fundamental computational modeling being utilized by the CHCCP Center include
production-level RANS techniques, state-of-the-art LES/RANS techniques, and the development
of advanced filtered density function (FDF) techniques. LES/RANS, developed by NSCU,
employed a blending function to transition from the LES of the flowfield to the RANS near
walls. An advanced FDF technique, termed energy-pressure-velocity-scalar (EPVS), was
developed by the University of Pittsburg and Michigan State University for turbulent combusting
flows.
The University of Buffalo utilized Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) to provide data
utilized by the LES/RANS and FDF solution methodologies. UVa derived skeletal and reduced
reaction models for ethylene combustion and conducted experiments on counterflow combustor
extinction and ignition limits. Cornell University derived computationally-efficient
implementation of ethylene combustion using rate-controlled constrained equilibrium (RCCE)
and in-situ adaptive tabulation (ISAT) methodologies for incorporation in LES/RANS and
advanced FDF models. NIST conducted experiments to provide detailed chemical kinetic data
for hydrocarbon fuels of interest in hypersonic propulsion.

6

Hypersonic Propulsion Research at CUBRC State-of-the Art Ground Testing

At CUBRCs LENS II long-duration shock tunnel, a full-scale X-51 vehicle equipped with a
generic scramjet flowpath was tested at duplicated Mach 6 flight conditions. During the past
year, measurements have been made of the thrust, drag and lift were conducted in the clean air
environment.
A unique soft suspension system was
developed to free fly the X-51 model
during the 80+ ms of the flow duration in
the tunnel. Extensive heat transfer and
pressure measurements were made
through the engine and over the
simulated engine seals. A combined set
of measurements provided new unique
code validation data for a range of
fueling conditions.
Fundamental studies of mixing
and combustion were also conducted at
CUBRC in a large-scale combustion duct
with a HIFiRE-like flowpath to examine
the mixing and combustion processes in a
Mach 5 to 7 scramjet environment. These
studies are being conducted in
conjunction with detailed DES/LES computations being performed at the University of
Minnesota.

The Aerothermal/Aero-optic
Evaluation Center (AAEC) at
CUBRC operates the LENS
supersonic and hypersonic test
facilities for ground testing of
full-scale missiles up to 30 ft
in length at fully duplicated
flight conditions from Mach
3.5 to Mach 30.
The LENS ground test
capability consisting of the
LENS I and LENS II reflected
shock tunnels and the LENS
X expansion tunnel, which
have been constructed during
the past 15 years, provide the world's most advanced facilities for high Reynolds number testing
in hypervelocity flows. The LENS facilities have been used in the study of interceptors, scramjet
and ramjet engine performance, dynamic booster stage and shroud separation, shuttle ascent and
reentry, planetary reentry to Earth and Mars and other bodies in the solar system, jet and divert
thruster interaction, plume interactions, and many other applications.
7


Air Breathing High Speed Propulsion in Japan Right On Track

The international community had a share of setbacks and triumphs. On March 11, a massive M9
class earthquake shook the north-east area of Japan, taking more than 15,000 lives and
destroying buildings, cars, ships and airplanes. At the end of July, nearly 5 thousand people were
still missing. Tohoku University and the Kakuda Space Center of the Japan Aerospace
Exploration Agency (JAXA) are located in the affected region. These two centers lead Japan's
work in high-speed air-breathing propulsion research. Fortunately, no casualties were reported in
both sites, and damages to the facilities were minimal.
Kakuda Space Center, JAXA's hub for high-speed air-breathing propulsion R&D, did not
report human losses and damage to buildings was minor, considering the magnitude of the
quake. The director of the center, Mr. Keiichiro Noda, was grateful to receive a letter of
sympathy from Mr. Charles Bolden, Jr., NASA Administrator. By mid-year, routine R&D
activities at the Kakuda Center resumed.

Crack in the road - JAXAs Kakuda Space Center Mr. Justin Tilman, NASA Japan Representative, and Mr. Keiichiro Noda,
(March, 2011) - Courtesy of Dr. Kanda. Director, Kakuda Space Center (June 28, 2011).


Japanese researchers succeeded in measuring the second mode pressure fluctuations of the
boundary layer transition using a 7-degree half-angle cone model, 1100-mm long, at a high
enthalpy flow condition in JAXAs High Enthalpy Shock Tunnel (HIEST)
3
. The measurement
mainly focused on observation of the second mode instability in the transition process under
hypersonic high-enthalpy flow with high-speed pressure transducers.
Recently, Dr. Takeshi Kanda, lead researcher at JAXA and international member of the
AIAA HSABPTC, proposed a prediction method for boundary layer transition using a
conservation law approach
4
that covers from subsonic to hypersonic speed flow region. The
increasing ratio of the boundary layer thickness to the laminar boundary layer thickness at the

3
Tanno, H., et al., AIAA Paper 2011-3889.
4
Kanda, T., Trans. JSASS, Vol. 54, No. 183, 2011, pp. 7-15.
8

transition is introduced. Several equations for laminar and turbulent boundary layers are used to
predict the transition Reynolds number. The effect of the momentum deficit at the leading edge
is also incorporated in this approach assuming compressible flow conditions. The calculated
transition Reynolds number shows reasonable agreement with the experimental results. Under
the compressible flow conditions, the calculation simulates the bucket of the transition Reynolds
number with a Mach number, the change in the transition Reynolds number due to wall cooling,
and the increase in the transition Reynolds number with increase in the bluntness Reynolds
number. Dr. Kanda and his collaborators at JAXA plan to include this prediction method in the
design and test of hypersonic propulsion technologies.









A 7 deg half-angle cone model used in the boundary
layer study at HIEST(JAXA).







As we end 2011, let us reflect on the advances made but with a look at the future of high speed
air breathing propulsion. Let us imagine a future where hypersonic vehicles streak through the
sky at many times the speed of sound around the world, and envision spaceplanes that combine
scramjets with rockets to make access to space more viable. Let us now speed into the future!

Acknowledgements

The author is grateful to the following people for their contribution to this article.

Mr. Charles Brink - Air Force Research Laboratory
Dr. Adam Siebenhaar - Aerojet
Professor James McDaniel - University of Virginia
Dr. Takeshi Kanda - Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)
Dr. Michael Holden - CUBRC