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This paper presents an analysis of approaches to ensuring the performance of a ramjet combustor using an unconventional method of measuring the thrust in testing an experimental model of a liquid-fuel combustor under flight conditions simulated by a fired heater. The thrust and drag of the combustor model were measured in firing tests with an attached air duct using a thrust meter. Thrust is a parameter that characterizes the energy potential of any engine. The conventional method of determining the thrust and economic characteristics of a heat engine involves lengthy multi-parameter studies and calculations of the operation performance. The new method allows one to detect the effect of any parameter or element of the structure on the physical process in a combustor in units of the developed thrust and evaluate the change in any parameter by the thrust level directly in firing tests. The proposed thrust measurement system makes it possible to refine the strategy of implementing the combustor operation at an early stage of testing, thus reducing the amount of intermediate calculations and saving a huge amount of time and money. This, combined with static pressure measurements along the combustor length, allows a guaranteed prediction of the direction of search for improving the operation performance. Ways are shown to improve the ramjet combustor performance using a thrust meter to evaluate the overall engine performance under conditions of limited technical and methodical possibilities in firing tests. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Dynamic Pressure Regain Method, a new design method for uniform air supply, was proposed in this paper, based on the principle of total pressure balance. It can achieve uniform air supply by keeping equal dynamic pressure in adjacent sections of the main duct that opens up a new field for the design of uniform air supply duct system. Research was carried out through numerical simulation and full-scale experiment. First, the design steps of this method were proposed according to the flow characteristics in the duct. Then the recommended range of air velocity ratio was determined by numerical simulation calculation, and the resistance calculation formulas of the duct under this method were fitted. Finally, the full-scale experiment was carried out for the working conditions of inlet air velocity of 4 m/s and 5 m/s to verify the results of numerical simulation, including the total pressure balance, the uniformity of air supply system, the resistance calculation formulas of duct and the verticality of outlet airflow. The results showed that with a constant air velocity of the main duct sections, the variation of the total pressure loss was within 5 %, thus satisfying the total pressure balance; With a 0.6–1.0 air velocity ratio of the branch to main duct, the air volume imbalance rate of the branch duct was lower than 10 %; The error of local resistance calculation formulas of the duct system was no more than 3 %. The airflow deflection angle travelling out along the branch duct walls was within 20°. This complete design method of uniform air supply satisfies the total pressure balance and features simplicity, which decreases the air volume imbalance rate by 84 % compared with the static pressure regain method. Besides, when the size of the inlet duct remains constant, that of the design model will not change with the inlet air velocity. In addition, this study proposed the resistance calculation formulas that conform to the characteristics of its design model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]