Anaya Brown
MIT Department: Aeronautics and Astronautics
Faculty Mentor: Prof. Wesley Harris
Undergraduate Institution: North Carolina A&T State University
Hometown: Greensboro, North Carolina
Website: LinkedIn
Biography
Anaya Brown is a senior Mechanical Engineering student with a concentration in Aerospace, studying at North Carolina Agricultural & Technical State University. She plans on pursuing an M.S. and Ph.D., with a focus on stabilizing hypersonic combustion within a scramjet engine. Before going to graduate school, she plans on taking a gap year to work in the aerospace industry and also aims to pursue a certificate in Hypersonics from University of Colorado Boulder. In the summer of 2023, she interned with Corning Inc. as a Safety Engineer, working on risk assessments in manufacturing and finding solutions to the most apparent hazards. Currently, Anaya is interning in the AeroAstro department, working under the guidance of Dr. Wesley Harris. She is interested in the instability of scramjet combustion and how to improve the process through the injection of hydrogen fuel by looking into various factors. Outside of academics, Anaya spends her time watching movies, hiking, going to concerts, and spending time with her friends.
Abstract
Improving Stability of Scramjet Combustion Through Hydrogen Fuel Injection
Anaya Brown1, Wesley Harris2
1Department of Mechanical Engineering, North Carolina Agricultural & Technical
State University
2Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Supersonic combustion ramjets, also known as scramjets, are a variation of jet engines that were manufactured to optimally perform at speeds around Mach 5 and above. Currently only used for military aircraft, a future goal for numerous aerospace companies is to use scramjets for commercial travel. These engines produce great amounts of thrust. However, the amount of turbulent energy involved in the combustion process could be inhibiting the engine’s fullest potential. It is already proven that hydrogen is the optimal fuel for scramjet combustion, with it producing the right amount of thrust while having minimal ignition requirements. However, hydrogens’ high reactivity produces instability within the combustion chamber, seen as turbulent waves and excessive hot spots up to 3000 K. This reaction will be observed through reduced order model simulations on Ansys under differing conditions such as chamber geometry and injection location. Results will show the temperature gradient, and differing numbers for pressure, velocity, and density dependent on the previously listed differing conditions. The results of this research will be the key to better understanding the entropy of hydrogen and how it affects the combustion process, ultimately leading to better thrust production.
