{"id":123972,"date":"2021-11-01T08:49:09","date_gmt":"2021-11-01T12:49:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/123972///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/123972//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/123972//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/123972//?p=123972"},"modified":"2021-11-03T07:59:00","modified_gmt":"2021-11-03T11:59:00","slug":"ucf-lands-selective-new-dod-award-to-advance-hypersonic-propulsion-research","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/123972///news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/123972//www.ucf.edu/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/123972//news/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/123972//ucf-lands-selective-new-dod-award-to-advance-hypersonic-propulsion-research/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/123972//","title":{"rendered":"UCF Lands Selective New DOD Award to Advance Hypersonic Propulsion Research"},"content":{"rendered":"

A new race to harness hypersonic speed for travel and defense has started, and 色花堂 researchers are helping the U.S. stay ahead of the pack with a new $1.5 million U.S. Department of Defense award to develop high-performance fuels for hypersonic propulsion./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/123972/n

The race, which includes competition from Russia and China, recently intensified when it was reported that China may have tested a nuclear-capable hypersonic missile in August. Hypersonic speeds are those that are Mach 5 and higher, or five times greater than the speed of sound./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/123972/n

The three-year award to UCF is one of 18 research projects the Department of Defense recently announced it was funding in order to advance the state of applied hypersonics research and build a hypersonics-focused scientific and industrial workforce./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/123972/n

The award is through the University Consortium for Applied Hypersonics, which operates under the Department of Defense/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/123972/u2019s Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/123972/u2019s Joint Hypersonics Transition Office and is administered by the Texas A&M Engineering Experiment Station./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/123972/n

The UCF project will explore high flammability and high energy-density solid fuels for ramjets and scramjets, both of which are engines designed for hypersonic propulsion. It will be led by Kareem Ahmed, an associate professor in UCF/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/123972/u2019s Department of Mechanical Engineering and an expert in hypersonic propulsion engineering. The project has also been boosted with additional funding from UCF/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/123972/u2019s recently announced Jump Start awards which invests in the UCF Ultra-High-Speed Flow Facility for Hypersonics and Space Propulsion./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/123972/n

The work is important because solid-fuel rocket systems are four to five times more fuel efficient than liquid-propellant systems, meaning they can go farther for less cost, and are safer to store./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/123972/n

The problem has been that solid fuel systems face significant challenges in low pressure conditions that occur at high altitudes, such as unstable flames, blowouts and adverse reaction flows, which reduce engine stability, Ahmed says./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/123972/n

To overcome this, Ahmed/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/123972/u2019s team will perform experiments to create new, advanced solid fuels that use outside air to help drive supersonic combustion in a scramjet, known as airbreathing propulsion, rather than carrying its own oxygen supply that/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/123972/u2019s mixed into the system like what/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/123972/u2019s used in rocket propellants./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/123972/n

/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/123972/u201cThe novel solid fuels will provide wider flammability limits and longer range while constraining volume and improving thermal and mechanical properties,/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/123972/u201d Ahmed says./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/123972/n

Solid fuel compositions, such as aluminum-lithium based fuels, and advanced manufacturing techniques like field assisted sintering technology that can achieve new compositions not previously obtained, will be explored to identify blend optimization for high altitude, hypersonic propulsion./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/123972/n

The high-speed, low pressure, solid-fuel reactions will be tested in UCF/news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/123972/u2019s unique hypersonic high-enthalpy reaction, or HyperREACT, facility to allow the detailed exploration of the reacting flame-flow dynamics in extreme, previously inaccessible regimes using high-speed, high-resolution advanced laser diagnostics./news/wp-json/wp/v2/posts/123972/n