Turbo Ramjet
Turbo Ramjet
Turbo Ramjet
During low speed flight, these controllable flaps close the bypass duct
and force air directly into the compressor section of the turbojet.
During high speed flight, the flaps block the flow into the turbojet, and
the engine operates like a ramjet using the aft combustion chamber to
produce thrust
APPLICATION
During a typical SR-71 flight, the engine would start out
operating as a turbojet during take-off and while climbing to
altitude. Upon reaching high subsonic speed, the portion of
the engine downstream of the turbojet would be used as an
afterburner to accelerate the plane above the speed of sound.
Once the aircraft was traveling fast enough, the bypass flaps
would block the flow into the turbojet and the engine would
begin operating as a ramjet to accelerate to cruise speed.
The SR-71 typically flew between Mach 3 and 3.5 during
cruise flight, speeds at which the turbojet could not function
because of the temperature limitations of its turbine blades.
What is ATR?
The Air Turbo Rocket, also known as the Air Turbo Ramjet or by its
acronym, the ATR, is an airbreathing propulsion engine which
combines elements from both turbojets and rocket engines.
The ATR belongs to a general class of propulsion engines known as
Turbine-Based-Combined-Cycle, or TBCC, engines
OPERATIONS
The basic operation of the ATR is as follows.
A source of hot, high energy, fuel-rich gas is used to drive a turbine,
which in turn drives a compressor.
The compressor compresses incoming atmospheric air, like a turbojet,
which then flows into a combustion chamber, which is much like an
afterburner (or reheater) on a turbojet.
The fuel-rich gas which was used to drive the turbine also flows into
the combustion chamber. Within this combustor chamber, the
compressed air from the compressor and the fuel-rich turbine drive gas
are mixed, burned, and then expanded through a nozzle to produce
thrust.
Cont
The source of the hot, high energy fuel-rich gas is generically known
as the gas generator, and it can be configured in a number of different
ways.
The hot gas can be produced by mixing and burning a liquid or
gaseous fuel and oxidizer combination, by the use of a monopropellant gas generator, or by the burning of a solid propellant. These
configurations are known as gas-generator, or gg-cycle ATRs
LACE
A liquid air cycle engine (LACE) is a type of spacecraft
propulsion engine that attempts to increase its efficiency by gathering
part of its oxidizer from the atmosphere. A liquid air cycle engine
uses liquid hydrogen (LH2) fuel to liquefy the air.
In a liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen rocket, the liquid oxygen (LOX)
needed for combustion is the majority of the weight of the spacecraft
on lift-off, so if some of this can be collected from the air on the way,
it might dramatically lower the take-off weight of the spacecraft.
Principles of operations
Conceptually, LACE works by compressing and then quickly liquefying the air.
Compression is achieved through the ram-air effect in an intake similar to that
found on a high-speed aircraft like Concorde, where intake ramps create shock
waves that compress the air.
The LACE design then blows the compressed air over a heat exchanger, in which
the liquid hydrogen fuel is flowing.
This rapidly cools the air, and the various constituents quickly liquefy. By careful
mechanical arrangement the liquid oxygen can be removed from the other parts of
the air, notably water, nitrogen and carbon dioxide, at which point the liquid
oxygen can be fed into the engine as usual.
The hydrogen is so much lighter than oxygen that the now-warmer hydrogen is
often dumped overboard instead of being re-used as fuel, at a net gain.