posted on Nov, 7 2003 @ 07:28 PM
Did you see my last post? I'm asking because I just am not sure if you missed it or not.
Let's step through it from the intake back:
The air comes in at the conical intake and is compressed as it goes over the "choke" point. This compressed air is VERY hot, so when it hits the
fuel injectors, the fuel ignites. The combustion of the fuel accelerates the air (the enthalpy of the air is increased), it then hits a venturi tube,
which accelerates it further.
A scramjet is a little different in that it injects and ignites the air at supersonic air speeds (the injection/combustion point is moved to just past
the choke point in the conical intake). The nozzle in a scramjet is the expansion that occurs at the backside of the conical intake. Usually, the
fuel in a scramjet will be hydrogen.
I will try to find some more links for you, but I hope this explanation helps. Basically, the minute you ignite the fuel you have increased the
internal energy of your airflow, then you pass it through the correct geometry (venturi for subsonic, expansion for sonic) and it accelerates further.
These two increases cause the thrust.