Hydrogen Fuelled Pre-Cooled Jet Engines

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Gertrude Waters
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1 Hydrogen Fuelled Pre-Cooled Jet Engines A Presentation to the Royal Aeronautical Society 3 June 2008 Alan Bond, Managing Director Reaction Engines Ltd

2 Origins

3 Early 1950s view of the route to space. A fully reusable transport infrastructure.

4 X-15 with B52 Mother ship. 199 flights between 1959 and A fully reusable Spaceplane.

5 Reusable launcher concepts of the late 1960s and early 1970s..we thought we would have this..

6 But:-

7 Can We Consider Single Stage Vehicles? Earth is marginally too big to admit an effective SSTO rocket with near term materials technology, discounting the use of ozone or fluorine. Use must be made of the lower atmosphere for both its chemical potential and reaction mass. (Nuclear propulsion is the subject of a different lecture!)

8 Stagnation Temperature increases with Mach number T = M N

9 X-43A Scramjet Research Vehicle

10 The LACE engine R.A. Jeffs & B.A. Beeton NGTE (1962)

11 In the mid 1980s the UK returned to the higher-faster aircraft concept as a route to space HOTOL

13 SKYLON

14 1990 The SKYLON Spaceplane the Phoenix of HOTOL Skylon sculpture Festival of Britain 1951

15 Reusability: Characteristics for Commercial Operations (1) reduced cost per flight by amortising production cost over 200 flights. Single-stage: reduced development and operating costs relative to multi-stage vehicles. Un-piloted: reduced mission control, relaxed safety during development, increased payload. dedicated accessory passenger module for payload bay.

16 Characteristics for Commercial Operations (2) Abort capability: abort to launch site with up to half engines failed. flight critical systems redundant to single point failure. User friendly operations: simple ground handling and automatic checkout. low maintenance through robust TPS and long life engines. containerised payload system. Re-entry entry cross-range: range: high hypersonic L/D to improve return opportunities to launch site. Environmental impact: benign propellants, low engine noise, no orbital debris.

18 Truss Structure of SKYLON

19 Specific strength of advanced materials Aero-shell composite

20 Hypersonic wind tunnel tests at QinetiQ, Farnborough SKYLON is a mature project study supported by extensive university and industry input. Mn = 9.5 Courtesy of QinetiQ

21 SKYLON 12 tonnes to LEO 10 tonnes to ISS 200m 3 payload bay 4.6m diameter payload

22 Abort Characteristics Full return to base envelope for single point abortable failures. Full take-off abort envelope. Aerodynamically controllable with one nacelle inoperable in airbreathing ascent. Mach 3 ramjet return cruise mode for early rocket abort. Once Around mode for late rocket abort. Fully redundant RCS and OMS systems.

23 Pre-Cooled Engines

24 Precooled Engine Cycle 2 nd Cycle Air intake Liquid hydrogen Cooler Compressor Thermodynamic Cycle Heat Sink Turbine C o m b u s t o r

26 Some SABRE Parameters Area ratio 100 Airbreathing combustion pressure 102bar (nominal) Rocket combustion pressure 145bar (max) Cycle pressure ratio 4.5:1 Compressor pressure ratio 140 Equivalence ratio 2.8 V eff at Mach 5 16,000 m/s (cf. 46,000 ideal) Oxidiser cooled combustion chamber

27 Pre-Cooler Construction

28 Heat Exchanger Manufacturing Development Brazed Joints 0.88mm x 30µm wall tube Supported by a DTI SMART Award

29 Low Temperature Frost Control Testing Matrix pressure drop Test temperatures

30 First Prototype Pre-cooler Module

31 Low pressure-surface Heat Transfer Enhancement

32 Pre-Cooled Gas Turbine Test Objective Demonstrate real heat exchanger construction and tube size on a test with 9% flow and area.

33 Reaction Engines B9 Test Facility

34 E-D Nozzle Test Program (STERN) (Joint program Uni. of Bristol and Airborne Engineering)

35 Hypersonic Transport

37 LAPCAT Configuration A2 Take-off mass 400t Compliment 300 passengers Range 23,000km Speed Mach 5

38 Brussels-Sydney: Bering Straits route Leg 2: Nome - Sydney 11,552 km Total journey 18,732 km Leg 1: Brussels-Nome (Alaska) 7176 km cruise (assuming supersonic overflight of Bering straits)

39 Scimitar Rev.1 Main Cycle Parameters at Mach5 200bar 3bar 1320K 2.4bar 635K 989K 853K 999K 861K 200bar 132bar 2627K 50.8bar 610K 843K 291K 18bar

40 Scimitar Engine installation-nozzle view

42 Brazed Tube-Header of a Scimitar Module

43 Scimitar Schematic HX3 Two spool compressor Fan & hub turbine Core engine combustor Precooler He turbine Preburner Bypass combustor

44 Experimental Contra-rotating Stator-less Turbine Installation

45 Inlet Plenum & IGV Assembly Rotors 1 & 3 Rotors 2 & 4

46 High Pressure Regenerator Research Micro-channel plate assembly 50µm Research press tool

Relatively good control of channel dimensions and wall thickness.

47 Silicon Carbide manufacturing research Successful extrusion of rectangular strips 600mm long (or more). Relatively good control of channel dimensions and wall thickness. Green extruded strips require drying mould to control profile. Removal process required for internal silicon beads that form during reaction bonding process.

48 Some Scimitar Parameters Subsonic mode operation below Mach 2.5 Precooled above Mach 3 at inlet 635K Mach 5 ER = 0.8, V eff = 44,000m/s Mach 0.9 ER = 0.075, V eff = 96,000m/s Compressor pressure ratio 4 Fan pressure ratio 1.8

49 In Summary:- From the Von Braun Studies of the early 1950s, over half a Century has elapsed and a reusable space transportation system seems as remote as ever. 40 years have passed since Phil Bono of Douglas showed that a single stage to orbit low cross-range vehicle is credible, given high performance rocket engines and structures, which we now have. It is now 20+ years since British Aerospace and Rolls- Royce carried out the HOTOL study, indicating the possibility of realising a high cross-range single stage vehicle.

50 In Summary:- Today the spacefaring nations of the World are planning a new generation of launchers based on more of the same. In addition the World is back to subsonic civil transport. The aerospace industry and the aerospace establishments are obsessed with Scramjets which will keep them in research funds for another generation. The precooled engine is virtually here. It is adequate to Mach 5 at which we can do a very great deal to advance the utility of space and the quality of life through improved transportation. Lets get on with it!

The Space Sortie Vehicle

The Space Sortie Vehicle Until now, apart from the NASA space shuttle, almost every national space program has been based around vertically launched expendable rockets. These are not only very expensive