Study on the Influence of Combustion Reaction in the Tail Nozzle of Air Turbine Rocket Engine on Thrust Performance

Air turbo rocket engine (ATR) is a combined cycle power device that mixes turbine and rocket technology. It has many good features, such as a wide working range, high thrust-weight ratio, good specific impulse and strong mobility. It is an ideal power source for near-space high-speed aircraft, tactical missiles and two-stage-to-orbit aerospace transportation systems. This paper, based on five core research aspects, explains the ATR engine's working principle, core component optimization methods, variable working condition performance and control rules, sorts out the current core technical challenges, and looks forward to the future development trend. It provides theoretical reference and technical support for the ATR engine's engineering application and performance improvement. The rapid development of high-speed aeronautical and aerospace technologies in recent years has put forward higher requirements for the performance of air-breathing power devices, and ATR has received extensive attention from academia and industry around the world due to its unique advantages in transonic and hypersonic flight conditions. Different from traditional gas turbine engines that rely entirely on atmospheric oxygen for combustion and pure rocket engines that carry all oxidants, ATR uses a rocket gas generator to pre-generate high-temperature gas, then introduces atmospheric air through an inlet to mix with the pre-generated gas for secondary combustion, and finally expands the mixed gas through a turbine to output thrust. This special working mode makes it avoid the problems of the low thrust-weight ratio of turbine engines and the low specific impulse of pure rocket engines, filling the performance gap between the two traditional power schemes in the flight Mach number range of 3 to 6.