Supersonic Combustion Ramjet: Analysis on Fuel Options

This report focuses on different fuel options available to use for scramjet engines. The advantages and disadvantages of JP-7, JP-8, and hydrogen fuels are covered, also the effectiveness and requirements for each fuel are discussed. The recent history of the scramjet engine is included as well as its advantages and disadvantages. An explanation of what each fuel option encompasses and engineering analysis for each fuel are shown. The equations presented for the parametric analysis are shown as functions of the freestream Mach number, with the combustion Mach number as a parameter. The results can be seen for the theoretical possibilities of the scramjet engine and the most likely operating situations. Hydrogen has the highest lower heating value which makes it very appealing to use as a fuel, but it is not very dense so more volume of it is needed to create enough energy. The hydrocarbon fuels, JP-7 and JP-8, have half the value of hydrogen for the lower heating value but have many other advantages as stated in the following report.