Supersonic combustion of a silane/methane mixture

A test program was conducted to evaluate the ignition and combustion characteristics of a 20 volume percent silane/methane mixture using a model scramjet combustor with Mach 2 combustor entrance conditions. The test gas total temperature was varied from 1200 to 3900 R. The mixture autoignited at a total temperature of 1650 R. This autoignition temperature can be contrasted with 2330 R for hydrogen and 1350 R for a 20 percent silane/hydrogen mixture in similar hardware. Methane without the silane additive did not autoignite in this configuration at temperatures as high as 3900 R.