India’s Defence Research & Development Laboratory (DRDL) conducted a longer duration ground test recently of a scramjet engine combustor.
A scramjet engine powers hypersonic weapons with speeds of over Mach 5 or 6,174 kilometers/3,836 miles per hour.
The over 16-minute test was an upgrade over a previous test in January that lasted 120 seconds.
It was performed at the newly-built Scramjet Connect Test Facility in India’s southern city of Hyderabad.
The test makes the system ready for “full scale flight worthy combustor testing,” the Indian Ministry of Defence (MoD) stated in a press release.
Scramjet Engine
A scramjet is an advanced version of the ramjet air breathing engine with higher speeds and greater fuel efficiency.
The greater performance is achieved through combustion that takes place at supersonic speed, unlike the ramjet where the airflow is slowed to subsonic speed before combustion.
To achieve the feat, the developers used an “innovative flame stabilisation technique” that could keep the flame burning inside the combustor at an airspeed of over 1.5 kilometers or nearly one mile per second.
Additional components include indigenously-developed endothermic scramjet fuel for improved cooling and ease of ignition and a thermal barrier coating to resist extreme heat.
“This test validates the design of long duration scramjet combustor as well as test facility,” the MoD stated.
“It is an outcome of an integrated effort put by the DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation) labs along with industry & academia and paves a strong base for the nation’s Hypersonic Cruise Missile Development Programme.”
