Ideal heat release and ideal inner configuration of supersonic combustor

To seek the optimum heat release and inner configuration of a supersonic combustor, a strategy was proposed to address the coupling optimization problem in an infinite-dimensional function space. The total pressure recovery coefficient of the combustor was chosen as the objective function to minimize the entropy increment, which also corresponded to the performance limit of a supersonic combustor. With properly defined boundary conditions and necessary constraints, the problem was formulated and solved using optimal control theory. The results of the optimum heat release and inner configuration of a supersonic combustor were provided, and the influences of important factors were analyzed.