Chinese Academy of Sciences
Chinese researchers have developed an engine that uses normal aviation fuel to travel to Mach 16, which could be a factor of change in hypersonic flight
Chinese scientists successfully tested an oblique detonation engine chamber that simulated flight conditions to Mach 8 and a 30 km altitude. It could reach 16 times the speed of sound.
A team of investigators from the Chinese Launch Technology Academy (Calt) got a decisive advance in what was considered an impossible hypersonic engine: the oblique detonation engine (ODE).
The concept, which until now it seemed of science fiction, contemplates a system of propulsion without moving parts by coupling shock waves with combustion
It is “impossible engine”Was designed by US scientists in 1958 and Abandoned decades later due to its extreme technical complexity.
Calt’s experience, which simulated flight conditions to Mach 8 and a 30 km altitude, managed to light and maintain Stable detonation waves for more than two seconds – which proves the technical viability of the concept to military use. According to scientists, the engine could reach 16 times the speed of sound.
“The results demonstrate the technical viability of the internal injection liquid oblique detonation engines,” he says The onefirst author of the article that presents the research, published this month in Journal of Aerospace Power.
In 1978, NASA scientists theorized that this concept could allow a sustained hypersonic flight of the out 6 A 16but the idea faced skepticism due to extreme technical obstacles.
In December last year, a team led by the Chinese Academy of Sciences had achieved a 50 millisecond detonation In a wind tunnel the Mach 9. The experience was at the time dealt with by the scientific community as a laboratory curiosity, given the ultra -cuted duration of detonation.
Now the Calt test – 40 times longer and with visible detonation waves And stabilized – ends all doubts, note o.
Inside the experimental engine combustion chamber, a central fuel injector with four holes of 0.3 mm in diameter sprayed conventional aviation fuel (Paraffin RP-3) In a supersonic air stream. A 20 degree wedge with a pair of 2 mm protrusions triggered detonation.
Despite progress, the study authors recognize Some limitations criticism. For example, the fuel penetrated only 39% of the flow channelo 90 mm high, leaving the external regions with fuelwhile pressure fluctuations in the exhaust intermittedly disturbed wave stability.
The team proposed some solutions, such as prolong the length of the channels fuel-air mixing and redesign the injector.
Although it can still take a few years until Ode can take us from Lisbon to Beijing in just one couple of hours, technology can find initial use in some MILITARY APPLICATIONS.
An assessment held in February on the Ode by the Chinese Academy of Aerotransported Missiles, which developed the Powerful PL-15E missile which earlier this month earlier this month, suggested that a land test greater than a second would be a critical threshold to convince the military to apply technology to weapons systems.
According to information available publicly, the Chinese military is also interested in using the new propulsion technology in intelligent projectiles to next generation artilleryso that they can reach targets at a much greater distance than non -projected projectiles.
