Research on Supersonic Combustion and Scramjet Combustors at ONERA

An overview of selected ONERA research activities on supersonic combustion and scramjet propulsion for civilian applications since 1992 is presented. The main part is devoted to basic research on supersonic combustion, including experimental database acquisition and combustion modeling. More applied studies on injection and flame stabilization in research scramjet combustors are then described and the article ends with a presentation of activities dedicated to real scramjet combustor design and characterization. This research was carried out either within the framework of three majors programs, PREPHA (1992-1997), JAPHAR (1997-2001), and LAPCAT II (2008-2013), or with internal funding.