The effect of entrance radius and film injection on wall heating in scramjet nozzles

An experimental study has been performed with a scramjet combustor and nozzle model to determine the effect of nozzle radii on relaminarization, and the effectiveness of film injection in reducing wall heat flux. The nozzle model was installed downstream of a swept-ramp scramjet combustor model, operated at Mach 2.7 with vitiated air, simulating Mach 6-7 flight enthalpies. Results from tests conducted with three nozzle radii, varying in curvature from a sharp Prandtl-Meyer expansion to a radius of two scramjet combustor exit heights, showed little or no effect on the downstream wall heat flux, which is not in agreement with both subsonic and supersonic relaminarization correlations in the available literature. In contrast, film injection upstream of all three radii produced reductions of 70 percent in the entire nozzle model heating rate, for the nominal film-to-free stream pressure matched condition. Results from film injection, with and without pressure gradient, but without wall curvature, show that the gradients appear to stabilize the film, with the resulting reductions in wall heat transfer rates apparent far downstream of the point of injection.