Expanding the scramjet operating envelope through oxygen enrichment. This project aims to investigate the benefits of expanding the operating envelope of scramjets to higher altitudes and speeds by enriching their fuel with oxygen. This is expected to enhance the performance and flexibility of hypersonic air-breathing engines designed to form the core of a more reliable and economical access to space system. Expected outcomes of this project are a validated understanding and mapping of how oxyge ....Expanding the scramjet operating envelope through oxygen enrichment. This project aims to investigate the benefits of expanding the operating envelope of scramjets to higher altitudes and speeds by enriching their fuel with oxygen. This is expected to enhance the performance and flexibility of hypersonic air-breathing engines designed to form the core of a more reliable and economical access to space system. Expected outcomes of this project are a validated understanding and mapping of how oxygen enrichment can augment scramjet thrust at high altitudes and speeds, and a performance evaluation of a launch system optimised for this approach. This could provide significant benefits to the performance of reusable, air-breathing launch technology, where Australia is leading the push towards commercialisation.Read moreRead less
Advanced Combustion Modelling for Scramjets and Rotating Detonation Engines. This project will develop new fundamental knowledge and engineering models underpinning air-breathing high speed propulsion engines employing complex hydrocarbon fuels. Extensive data and new physical understanding will be garnered through analysis of direct numerical simulations of supersonic reacting mixing layers including impinging shock waves. That data will be employed to isolate, test and develop computationally ....Advanced Combustion Modelling for Scramjets and Rotating Detonation Engines. This project will develop new fundamental knowledge and engineering models underpinning air-breathing high speed propulsion engines employing complex hydrocarbon fuels. Extensive data and new physical understanding will be garnered through analysis of direct numerical simulations of supersonic reacting mixing layers including impinging shock waves. That data will be employed to isolate, test and develop computationally efficient engineering models that are accurate and efficient for high speed combustion in rotating detonation engines and scramjets. Expected outcomes are knowledge and tools needed to develop practical and effective supersonic propulsion engines for access to space, defence and high speed point-to-point flight.
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Electron Transpiration Cooling of Hypersonic Vehicles. Future aircraft for flight at hypersonic speeds require sharp leading edges for the best aerodynamic performance. Sharp leading edges incur high heat loads and cannot be adequately cooled with current technologies. The project aim is to investigate novel surface materials that emit electrons when heated. This emission of electrons from the surface can significantly contribute to the cooling of the sharp leading edges. This project is expecte ....Electron Transpiration Cooling of Hypersonic Vehicles. Future aircraft for flight at hypersonic speeds require sharp leading edges for the best aerodynamic performance. Sharp leading edges incur high heat loads and cannot be adequately cooled with current technologies. The project aim is to investigate novel surface materials that emit electrons when heated. This emission of electrons from the surface can significantly contribute to the cooling of the sharp leading edges. This project is expected to deliver new experimental data on novel surface materials exposed to a hypersonic flow environment and computer models that can simulate their cooling effect. This investigation will contribute towards enabling technologies for sustained hypersonic flight by overcoming critical head load limitations.Read moreRead less
Radiation and Ablation in Rapidly Expanding Flows. The aim of the project is to record the spectra of radiation from a region of rapidly expanding flow representative of the passage of the shock layer on a re-entry capsule from the windward to the leeward surfaces. The significance of this work is that it addresses a critical area of spacecraft where the uncertainties of our design techniques are of the order of 300 per cent in terms of surface heat transfer, and current vehicles have to use lar ....Radiation and Ablation in Rapidly Expanding Flows. The aim of the project is to record the spectra of radiation from a region of rapidly expanding flow representative of the passage of the shock layer on a re-entry capsule from the windward to the leeward surfaces. The significance of this work is that it addresses a critical area of spacecraft where the uncertainties of our design techniques are of the order of 300 per cent in terms of surface heat transfer, and current vehicles have to use large safety factors to ensure survivability. The outputs from the project will be a data base of radiative parameters which should enable accurate models of the flow to be developed, which is expected to facilitate the design of advanced spacecraft with greater safety and reliability, and with lower structural mass.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE170100263
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$360,000.00
Summary
Magnetohydrodynamic aerobraking to land heavy payloads on Mars. This project aims to decelerate space vehicles by applying a magnetic field to the hot ionised gases that form around the vehicle. In the thin atmosphere of Mars, aerodynamic drag alone is not enough to land a spacecraft larger than 1 tonne. A human mission to Mars requires landing of payloads up to 80 tonnes. Interaction of the magnetic field with the ionised flow dissipates kinetic energy and can reduce surface heating. This proje ....Magnetohydrodynamic aerobraking to land heavy payloads on Mars. This project aims to decelerate space vehicles by applying a magnetic field to the hot ionised gases that form around the vehicle. In the thin atmosphere of Mars, aerodynamic drag alone is not enough to land a spacecraft larger than 1 tonne. A human mission to Mars requires landing of payloads up to 80 tonnes. Interaction of the magnetic field with the ionised flow dissipates kinetic energy and can reduce surface heating. This project could make Mars-return missions feasible by enabling greatly increased payloads. It also aims to evaluate magnetohydrodynamic braking and heat mitigation at true flight conditions.Read moreRead less
Non-equilibrium reacting shock layers. This project aims is to study the non-equilibrium aerodynamic processes involved in hypervelocity flight. The design of vehicles for high speed flight is critically dependent on modelling the interactions between the flow field and the airframe, and the current lack of understanding is restricting the scope and benefit of viable activities in space. The expected outcomes include the ability to design optimised heat shields and air-frames with minimum mass a ....Non-equilibrium reacting shock layers. This project aims is to study the non-equilibrium aerodynamic processes involved in hypervelocity flight. The design of vehicles for high speed flight is critically dependent on modelling the interactions between the flow field and the airframe, and the current lack of understanding is restricting the scope and benefit of viable activities in space. The expected outcomes include the ability to design optimised heat shields and air-frames with minimum mass and maximum payload, precisely targeting specific flight conditions and vehicle shapes. The prospective benefits include increased productivity and reliability and reduced cost of missions to and from space, and a proliferation of new applications which this understanding will facilitate.Read moreRead less
Turbulent heat transfer during Mars Venus and Earth atmospheric entry. This project aims to design better heat shields for spacecraft. Designing heat shields for re-entry vehicles needs good models to predict aerodynamic heating. Conventional wind tunnels cannot measure aerodynamic heating in ground tests in the region of peak heating, making design uncertain and risky. This project will use a free-piston-driven expansion tunnel that can produce flows fast and dense enough to measure heating for ....Turbulent heat transfer during Mars Venus and Earth atmospheric entry. This project aims to design better heat shields for spacecraft. Designing heat shields for re-entry vehicles needs good models to predict aerodynamic heating. Conventional wind tunnels cannot measure aerodynamic heating in ground tests in the region of peak heating, making design uncertain and risky. This project will use a free-piston-driven expansion tunnel that can produce flows fast and dense enough to measure heating for turbulent boundary layers at the highest speeds encountered during re-entry. This should allow scientists to test and develop theoretical and numerical models of heating and so improve spacecraft design.Read moreRead less
Discovery Early Career Researcher Award - Grant ID: DE190100849
Funder
Australian Research Council
Funding Amount
$364,000.00
Summary
Advanced thermal protection systems to enable Mars return missions. This project aims to advance the modelling of spacecraft heat shield performance to enable future returns to Earth from Mars, where vehicles will encounter heating loads an order of magnitude higher than Lunar returns. Survival depends on sacrificial heat shields which intentionally lose mass through ablation to form a protective layer. Currently, this process cannot be predicted accurately leading to compromised safety, excessi ....Advanced thermal protection systems to enable Mars return missions. This project aims to advance the modelling of spacecraft heat shield performance to enable future returns to Earth from Mars, where vehicles will encounter heating loads an order of magnitude higher than Lunar returns. Survival depends on sacrificial heat shields which intentionally lose mass through ablation to form a protective layer. Currently, this process cannot be predicted accurately leading to compromised safety, excessive weight, and increased mission cost. The expected outcome is an ablation model for vehicle design which, for the first time, is based on experiments with a realistic aerodynamic flow. The significance and benefit of this project is its potential to make ambitious missions such as a Mars return feasible.Read moreRead less
Ablative thermal protection systems. The project will study ablative reentry heat shields by experiments simulating hypervelocity atmospheric flight. The results will enable the design of the advanced spacecraft which are needed to extend mans exploration of the universe. Data will be validated by comparison with flights such as the Japanese Hayabusa asteroid sample return mission.
The science of scramjet propulsion. This project will study the science of scramjet operation at high Mach numbers and develop the understanding required for operation at such conditions. The outcomes include experimentally validated scramjet models operating at speeds never reached before, and the potential to extend the known flight envelope for air breathing propulsion.