Secondary combustion of magnesium powder to enhance kerosene-fueled scramjet thrust

Xu WANG; Jiaxun LIU; Yongqi LIU; Suyi DOU; Qingyu LI; Xu XU; Qingchun YANG

doi:10.7527/S1000-6893.2025.31786

ACTA AERONAUTICAET ASTRONAUTICA SINICA >

2025 , Vol. 46 >Issue 18: 131786 - 131786

DOI: https://doi.org/10.7527/S1000-6893.2025.31786

Fluid Mechanics and Flight Mechanics

Secondary combustion of magnesium powder to enhance kerosene-fueled scramjet thrust

Xu WANG ,
Jiaxun LIU ,
Yongqi LIU ,
Suyi DOU ,
Qingyu LI ,
Xu XU ,
Qingchun YANG

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^1.School of Astronautics，Beihang University，Beijing 　100191，China
^2.Shenyuan Honors College，Beihang University，Beijing 　100191，China
^3.National Key Laboratory of Aerospace Liquid Propulsion，Beihang University，Beijing 　102206，China

E-mail： yangqc@buaa.edu.cn

Received date: 2025-01-09

Revised date: 2025-01-22

Accepted date: 2025-02-10

Online published: 2025-02-12

Supported by

Provincial or Ministerial Level Project;Academic Excellence Foundation of Beihang University for PhD students;Outstanding Research Project of Shenyuan Honers College

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Abstract

To verify the feasibility of enhancing thrust performance in hydrocarbon-fueled scramjet engines through secondary combustion by injecting magnesium powder for fully combusted exhaust gases， a magnesium powder-enhanced direct-connect scramjet experimental system was developed. Experiments were conducted under simulated flight conditions of Mach number 6.0 at an altitude of 30 km. An improved thrust measurement method was employed to obtain the thrust and combustion performance parameters of the powder-based scramjet combustor. The study focused on evaluating the feasibility of the powder enhanced scramjet， the effects of the powder-gas ratio， and the powder residence distance on thrust performance. Results demonstrated the viability of the proposed scheme， with magnesium powder primarily reacting with water vapor and carbon dioxide in the exhaust gases， where water vapor was the dominant reactant. When 13% magnesium powder was injected， the engine achieved a specific thrust gain of 86.6% and a combustion efficiency of 65.1%. Considering both engine size and performance， the recommended ratio of powder residence distance-to-combustor chamber length is approximately 0.62.

Key words： metal fuel; hydrocarbon fuel; powder scramjet; magnesium powder; thrust performance

Cite this article

Xu WANG , Jiaxun LIU , Yongqi LIU , Suyi DOU , Qingyu LI , Xu XU , Qingchun YANG . Secondary combustion of magnesium powder to enhance kerosene-fueled scramjet thrust[J]. ACTA AERONAUTICAET ASTRONAUTICA SINICA, 2025 , 46(18) : 131786 -131786 . DOI: 10.7527/S1000-6893.2025.31786

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