A mechanism of combustion mode transition for hydrogen fueled scramjet

The combustion mode transition will occur repeatedly during the real flight of a hydrogen fueled scramjet. Under the assumption of inviscid flow, a series of the equations have been developed to identify combustion mode transition in an analytical way. The processes of heating and accelerating induced mode transition are investigated, respectively. This paper presents an analytical solution to understand the conditions for the transition between ramjet-scramjet operation modes. Besides, this paper also presents a qualitative explanation of the mode transition processes in the physical point of view. The mode transition is closely related to the thermal choking effects and shock wave motion. The process of mode transition is discontinuous and very fast. There is a sudden change with the combustor entry Mach number in this process. Copyright (C) 2014, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.