Effects of Oxygen Enrichment on Supersonic Combustion in a Mach 10 Scramjet

What is it about?

Scramjet engines are airbreathing engines, meaning they use the oxygen in the atmosphere for combustion. This means they face limitations in their operational envelope in terms of altitude, where less oxygen is available the higher it goes. It's also limited in its maximum velocity as it becomes harder to generate enough positive net thrust for its operation. One technique is proposed to circumvent this: oxygen enrichment, in which oxygen is premixed with the fuel. It is shown that there are considerable gains in terms of combustion performance, without considerably altering the supersonic combustion process in itself.

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