Performance comparison of liquid metal cooling system and regenerative cooling system in supersonic combustion ramjet engines

Jing Xu, Kunlin Cheng, Chaolei Dang, Yilin Wang, Zekuan Liu, Jiang Qin and Xiaoyong Liu

Energy, 2023, vol. 275, issue C

Abstract: To further evaluate the performance of liquid metal cooling system (LMCS) at high Mach number, it is necessary to compare the performance between liquid metal cooling system (LMCS) and regenerative cooling system (RCS). In this paper, the experiment of GaInSn alloy's enthalpy at high temperatures is carried out and the applicable temperature is expanded to 873 K, which provides important data support for cooling system performance evaluation. And a system model including wall cooling, combustion, heat exchanging and power generating is built to study the performance of LMCS and RCS. The calculation results illustrate that LMCS with GaInSn alloy can significantly raise flight Mach number up-limit of scramjet engine to 9.69. Considering the mass penalty by comparison, the most suitable coolant is liquid lithium, while GaInSn alloy is better considering the comprehensive effects. In addition, LMCS is more suitable for high Ma conditions with high heat flux than RCS due to the excellent heat transfer capability of liquid metals. The LMCS with liquid lithium carries smaller mass of coolant than the RCS when the flight time is greater than 587.6 s at Ma 9, indicating that the mass penalty caused by liquid metals is not severe.

Keywords: Liquid metal cooling system; Regenerative cooling system; Supersonic combustion ramjet engine; Closed-Brayton-cycle; GaInSn alloy; Mass penalty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2023
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:energy:v:275:y:2023:i:c:s0360544223008824

DOI: 10.1016/j.energy.2023.127488

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