Influence of Different Fuels on Scramjet Engine Performance

Various fuels can be used for Scramjet engines and the overall performance of the scramjet engine can be affected by different fuels it consumes. This paper has the topic of investigating on the influence of different fuels on scramjet engine performance. A reference scramjet configuration with design point parameters is given, based on that, the design point performances, throttling characteristics and velocity characteristics of scramjet engines using hydrogen, kerosene (C
₁₂
H
₂₃
), ethylene and methane as fuels are calculated and analyzed respectively. By comparing the results with different kinds of fuels, the influence of different kinds of fuels on scramjet engine performance is obtained. The results show that the specific thrust and specific impulse of hydrogen-fueled engine are the highest. The minimum flight Mach number allowed by hydrogen-fueled engine is the largest and that allowed by kerosene-fueled engine is the smallest, which means kerosene-fueled engine can operate at lower Mach numbers compare to hydrogen-fueled engine.