Cooled CMC Scramjet Engine Flowpath Development

Refractory Composites, Inc. has completed a Phase I effort in which scramjet flowpath design for cooled CMC components was evaluated. Thermostructural design, vehicle flight performance and key technical risks such as hot gas leakage, fuel injector thermal coking, long term tactical missile manufacturing affordability, complex engine geometry, complex coolant channel paths and structural scaling to large engine size was addressed using analyses and prototype component experimental validation tests. For Phase II, a combination of design, fabrication, NDE and scramjet engine direct connect testing at UTRC will be performed. Two engine test periods with intervening design, fabrication and NDE development cycles are planned. This work will advance the cooled CMC combustor technology dramatically through experimental validation of endothermic fuel cooling for realistic flightweight combustor components, through CMC durability and performance measures such as mass and effusion leakage evaluations, through enhanced NDE techniques applied to these components. The planned Phase II program will also validate the fuel cooling efficiency improvements needed and provide the kind of detailed engineering data needed to complete cooled CMC flowpath development in a Phase III program.