Experimental Study of a Dual-Mode Scramjet Isolator

A constant-area isolator was fabricated and tested in conjunction with a Mach 2 hydrogen-air combustor operating at a simulated Mach 5 flight enthalpy. Predicted isolator performance was validated through pressure measurements obtained via low-frequency pressure taps. The maximum pressure ratio measured in the combustor approached the design limit of 4.5. Scramjet operability, the range of equivalence ratios over which combustion was sustained without shock-inlet interaction, was improved to 0.06-0.32, as opposed to 0.32-0.37 without the isolator. For a given change in fuel equivalence ratio, the location of the shock train was easier to control with the isolator modification. Shock-train location repeatability was found to vary somewhat with equivalence ratio. Small fluctuations in the time-resolved pressure history indicated that the shock train was relatively temporally steady for a given equivalence ratio. High-frequency pressure measurements were within a 95% confidence interval of low-frequency pressure measurements. High-frequency results indicated that an increase in pressure and large pressure fluctuations occurred near the leading edge of the shock train. Power spectral analyses also indicated that there is significant variation in the frequency content of the pressure signal upstream and downstream of the shock-train leading edge. These results suggest that methods of shock-train leading-edge detection may be developed using pressure-time history characteristics other than the pressure magnitude.