Study on combined thermal protection scheme integrating supercritical CO₂ regenerative cooling and fuel film cooling used for scramjet engines

Supercritical CO₂ closed-Brayton-cycle demonstrates considerable application potential on hypersonic vehicles, effectively addressing power supply issues during prolonged flights. However, the CO₂ flow rate is strictly limited by the cycle's cooling source (aviation kerosene), rendering traditional regenerative cooling inadequate for sufficiently cooling the scramjet engine. To address this challenge, this study proposes an integrated cooling scheme that combines regenerative cooling, ceramic thermal-protective layer, and fuel film cooling. A two-dimensional coupled numerical model was developed, simultaneously considering the convective heat transfer of supercritical CO₂ and the shear mixing of supersonic fuel film. The results indicate that the high-enthalpy gas imposes an extreme aerodynamic heat load on the regenerative cooling channel wall, resulting in a notable deterioration in heat transfer for supercritical CO₂. Implementing kerosene film cooling within the combustor can effectively mitigate the abnormal heat transfer behavior of supercritical CO₂ and significantly reduce viscous dissipation heat within the gas boundary layer. By optimizing the fuel film injection layout, this combined cooling scheme reduced wall heat flux by 43 % and temperature by over 400 K compared to traditional regenerative cooling, thus providing effective thermal protection for the scramjet engine.