How Much Compression Should a Scramjet Inlet Do?

The supersonic combustion ramjet, or scramjet, is the engine cycle most suitable for sustained hypersonic flight in the atmosphere. This paper examines a key decision in the design of the inlet or intake of these hypersonic airbreathing engines, namely, the level of compression to be performed. Too much compression can lead to onerous system level issues including the need for bleed or variable geometry, while too little compression can result in low cycle efficiency and poor combustion of fuel. An analysis of the important factors that affect the choice of scramjet inlet compression ratio has been performed for hydrogen-fueled scramjets at Mach 6, 8, 10, and 12. It was found that contrary to classical thermodynamic analyses, scramjet cycle efficiency reaches an optimum at a relatively low compression ratio between 50 and 100 for all Mach numbers. Practical constraints related to nonequilibrium flow effects, inlet starting, and boundary-layer separation were also shown to prompt a desire for low compression ratio. The lower limit on compression was found to be set by the need to complete the combustion reaction in the available engine length and is therefore dependent on engine scale. On the basis of these factors it is recommended that scramjet inlet compression ratio be set to the minimum that satisfies the robust combustion requirement, with the caveat that it not be below 50 in order to maintain high cycle efficiency. For typical wind-tunnel-scale engines, this results in a requirement for the inlet to compress airflow entering the combustor to a pressure of approximately 1/2 atm, regardless of the flight Mach number.