Combustion Characteristics and Application Performance of JP-10/Nano-Sized Aluminum Gel-Fueled Scramjet

Abstract

Using nano-sized energetic materials as fuel additives to hydrocarbon gel fuel has gained in popularity due to the advantages of higher energy density and shorter ignition delay times. Combustion characteristics and application performance of gel fuel containing 16% wt aluminum nanoparticles were investigated on a direct-connect scramjet platform with an inflow Mach number of 2, an inflow total temperature of 1700 K, and a fuel equivalence ratio ranging from 0.6 to 1.0. The gel fuel could be stably injected and atomized efficiently by a nitrogen-assisted injector. The combustion efficiency of JP-[Formula: see text]Al gel fuel was 4.27% higher than that of JP-10 gel fuel, while the addition of aluminum increased the density specific impulse by 6.34%, indicating that the addition of aluminum nanoparticles indeed presented a positive effect on combustion and engine performance. The wall deposition phenomenon of gel fuel was particularly slight as compared to that of slurry fuel cases. Unlike nanoaluminum-blended slurry fuel, nanoaluminum-blended gel fuel controlled the potential risk of increasing thermal load to the least degree within the scope of existing research, with wall heat flux increasing by 7.43% solely as a result of elevated airflow temperature, indicating its advantageous application prospect.