Assessing the Potential for Improved Scramjet Performance through Application of Electromagnetic Flow Control

Sustained hypersonic flight using scramjet propulsion is the key technology bridging the gap between turbojets and the exoatmospheric environment where a rocket is required. Recent efforts have focused on electromagnetic (EM) flow control to mitigate the problems of high thermomechanical loads and low propulsion efficien- cies associated with scramjet propulsion. This research effort is the first flight-scale, three-dimensional computational analysis of a realistic scramjet to determine how EM flow control can improve scramjet performance. Development of a quasi-one dimen- sional design tool culminated in the first open source geometry of an entire scramjet flowpath. This geometry was then tested extensively with the Air Force Research Laboratory's three-dimensional Navier-Stokes and EM coupled computational code.