The development of a new, efficient means of access to space would yield a giant leap in the viability of many proposals for space exploitation and exploration that are currently being considered. One proposal is to employ so-called 'space planes,' designed to follow an airliner-like mission profile, in order to achieve the considerable savings in the cost of access to space that will be required. Further development of propulsion technology, particularly air-breathing propulsion systems, is fundamental to yielding a practical space plane, however. Although the development of such technology for high speeds is still in its infancy, in recent years some promising full scale tests of the so-called scramjet engine concept have been performed. This paper describes initial steps towards the construction of an engineering tool, called the Hybrid Propulsion Parametric-Modular Model, which can be used to study the behaviour of scramjets through the use of simplified numerical models, aided and supported by advanced Computational Fluid Dynamic simulations and experimental data where appropriate. The Hybrid Propulsion Parametric-Modular Model is conceived to be modular and flexible, and to be fully parametric. It is intended to facilitate the consideration, from the earliest phases of the design process, of several critically-important aspects of the propulsion system and its interaction with the vehicle. The greatest benefit of the model, given its limited computational cost, is expected to be however in the performance of multi-disciplinary optimization studies where it will be employed as part of a more generic systems-based model for characterising the performance of the next generation of space access vehicles.
It is widely accepted that more efficient propulsion technology needs to be developed before the re-usable 'space plane' concept for cheap and reliable access to space can become a practical reality. An engineering tool, called the HYbrid PRopulsion Optimiser, or HyPro for short, has been developed to characterise and optimise the performance of a range of hypersonic propulsion systems, with particular application to air-breathing and hybrid engines. The level of modelling embodied in the tool is particularly appropriate to the rapid parametric studies and configurational trade-offs that are usually conducted during the preliminary design of the propulsion system and the hypersonic vehicle that it is intended to propel.An algorithm, based on the Genetic Programming approach, and exploiting the highly modular structure of the engine model, has been developed to search the configurational design space for the engine geometry that is best adapted to the mission for which it is intended. In contrast to conventional optimisers which can vary only the parameters of the engine design, this tool is able to provide design solutions for the propulsion system without the actual structure of the engine having been specified a priori. Several applications serve to demonstrate the value of the tool in introducing some degree of objectivity into the process of discriminating between the many different configurations that have been proposed for space plane propulsion in the past.
2017-2224This version is available at https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/60584/ Strathprints is designed to allow users to access the research output of the University of Strathclyde. Unless otherwise explicitly stated on the manuscript, Copyright © and Moral Rights for the papers on this site are retained by the individual authors and/or other copyright owners. Please check the manuscript for details of any other licences that may have been applied. You may not engage in further distribution of the material for any profitmaking activities or any commercial gain. You may freely distribute both the url (https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/) and the content of this paper for research or private study, educational, or not-for-profit purposes without prior permission or charge.Any correspondence concerning this service should be sent to the This paper presents the conceptual design and performance analysis of a partially reusable space launch vehicle for small payloads. The system uses a multi-stage vehicle with rocket engines, with a reusable first stage capable of glided or powered flight, and expendable upper stage(s) to inject a 500 kg payload in different low Earth orbits. The space access vehicle is designed to be air-launched from a modified aircraft carrier. The aim of the system design is to develop a commercially viable launch system for near-term operation, thus emphasis is placed on the efficient use of high TRL technologies. The vehicle design are analysed using a multi-disciplinary design optimisation approach to evaluate the performance, operational capabilities and design trade-offs.
For various technical reasons, no fully reusable launch vehicle has ever been successfully constructed or operated. Nonetheless, a range of reusable hypersonic vehicles is currently being considered as a viable alternative to the expensive but more conventional expendable rocket systems that are currently being used to gain access to space. This paper presents a methodology that has been developed for the rapid and efficient preliminary design of such vehicles. The methodology that is presented uses multi-disciplinary design optimization coupled with an integrated set of reduced-order models to estimate the characteristics of the vehicle's aero-thermodynamic, propulsion, thermal protection and internal system architecture, as well as to estimate its overall mass. In the present work, the methodology has been applied to the multi-disciplinary modelling and optimization of a reusable hybrid rocket-and ramjet-powered launch vehicle during both the ascent and re-entry phases of its mission.
Practical embodiment of the Single-Stage to Orbit concept has long been held as the key to unlocking a future of rapid, reliable, even scheduled access to space. The full potential of Single-Stage to Orbit will only be realised when this vehicle concept is integrated into an airline-like operational paradigm which has, as its basis, the re-usability of the individual vehicles that comprise the fleet, but in addition, extends to the long-term assuredness of operations through sustained reliability, quick turnaround, and control over recurring costs to the point where the profitability of the enterprise can be assured for its owners and investors. The purpose of this paper is to make some initial steps towards providing some quantitative answers as to how decisions that are made regarding the design of the actual hardware might impact on long-term viability of the technology through influencing the reliability of the system and eventually its cost when incorporated as part of an integrated transportation system. This is achieved through embedding a physics-based simulation of the performance of the vehicle subsystems, under operational conditions, into a Discrete Event Simulation of spaceport operations, allowing the statistical relationship between the various design characteristics of the vehicle, and the metrics that are relevant to its operational cost, to be exposed.
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