Effects of plate vibration on the mixing and combustion of transverse hydrogen injection for scramjet

Transverse injection is an effective mixing enhancement technique for the combustor of scramjets. Vibration of the plate structure in combustor will easily be induced due to aerodynamic load and harsh aerothermodynamic load simultaneously. Effects of the plate vibration on the mixing and the combustion of the transverse hydrogen injection have been investigated numerically in this study. Finite rate chemistry model is used as combustion model. The supersonic jet experimental model of the Stanford University is modified slightly and used as the analysis model. Effects of the frequency and the amplitude of the plate vibration on combustion performance and flow field structure have been investigated in detail. The results show that the plate vibration increases the mixing efficiency, the combustion efficiency and the total pressure loss coefficient. Besides, it can change the flame structure and the shock wave structure, as well as increase the shock wave intensity at downstream of the injection. The vibration frequency has relatively little effect on the combustion efficiency and the total pressure loss coefficient. When the vibration frequency is large, it presents some high frequency pulsations for the total pressure loss coefficient. However, the vibration amplitude has large effect on combustion efficiency and the total pressure loss coefficient. When the vibration amplitude is small, the combustion efficiency presents regular periodic change with time. When the vibration amplitude is large, it diverges with time, and the flow tends to be unstable. The large vibration amplitude changes the stability of the original flow. Consequently, the combustion with large amplitude fluctuation can critically damage the combustion stability.     

Numerical investigation on the mechanism of the effects of plate vibration on mixing and combustion of transverse hydrogen injection

This study numerically investigates the effects of plate vibration and deformation on the combustion performance, the shock wave structure, the mixing characteristics and the flame structure for transverse hydrogen injection. The finite-rate method is used to simulate combustion. Results show that plate vibration causes the combustion performance to oscillate both temporally and spatially, while plate deformation can only change the static characteristics of the flow. Plate vibration and deformation increase the intensity and number of shock wave reflections in different ways. In addition, both plate vibration and deformation increase the momentum flux ratio and the jet penetration depth, which enhances mixing. Finally, plate vibration widens the flame and moves it upward to a greater extent than plate deformation.     

Effects of incident shock wave on mixing and flame holding of hydrogen in supersonic air flow

The effects of incident shock wave on mixing and flame holding of hydrogen in supersonic airflow have been studied numerically. The considered flow field was including of a sonic transverse hydrogen jet injected in a supersonic air stream. Under-expanded hydrogen jet was injected from a slot injector. Flow structure and fuel/air mixing mechanism were investigated numerically. Three-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations were solved along with SST k-ω turbulence model using OpenFOAM CFD toolbox. Impact of intersection point of incident shock and fuel jet on the flame stability was studied. According to the results, without oblique shock, mixing occurs at a low rate. When the intersection of incident shock and the lower surface is at upstream of the injection slot; no significant change occurs in the structure of the flow field at downstream. However when the intersection moves toward downstream of injection slot; dimensions of the recirculation zone and hydrogen-air mixing rate increase simultaneously. Consequently, an enhanced mixing zone occurs downstream of the injection slot which leads to flame-holding.     

Parametric effect on the flow and mixing properties of transverse gaseous injection flow fields with streamwise slot: A numerical study

Mixing process between the injectant and air in supersonic crossflow depends on the injector configuration and the jet-to-jet spacing heavily. In the current study, the three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations coupled with the two equation SST k-ω turbulence model were employed to simulate the mixing process induced by an array of three spanwise-aligned small-scale rectangular portholes, and the influences of the jet-to-jet spacing, the jet-to-crossflow pressure ratio and the aspect ratio of the injector on the flow field properties were evaluated. Two quantitative objectives were considered in this article, namely the fuel penetration depth and the mixing efficiency. The obtained results show that the flow field induced by the array of three spanwise-aligned small-scale rectangular portholes is a multiobjective design optimization problem, and the large aspect ratio is beneficial for the mixing enhancement in supersonic crossflow. However, it is not beneficial for the flame holding. The interaction between the adjacent injectors has a great impact on the fuel penetration depth in the far-field, especially for the larger jet-to-crossflow pressure ratio, and this is due to its wider fuel plume.     

Design exploration of three-dimensional transverse jet in a supersonic crossflow based on data mining and multi-objective design optimization approaches

The information in the three-dimensional transverse injection flow field is very important for the design of a scramjet combustor, and it should be explored by using the data mining and multi-objective design optimization methods. In the current study, the three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations coupled with the two equation SST k-ω turbulence model has been utilized to simulation the transverse injection flow field with a freestream Mach number 3.75, and the influence of the turbulence model on the flow field properties has been evaluated as well. At the same time, three grid scales have been employed to perform the grid independency analysis, and the predicted results have been compared with the available experimental data in the open literature in order to carry out the code validation process. Further, the effect of the injector geometric configuration on the mixing efficiency of the transverse injection flow field has been investigated, and four different configurations have been considered in the current study, namely the square port, the diamond port, the equilateral triangular port and the circular port. The obtained results show that the case with the square injection port can obtain the largest mixing efficiency, and it can offer the rapidest near-field mixing between the injectant and the air. At last, the transverse injection flow field with the square injection port has been optimized by the surrogate-based evolutionary algorithm, and the relationships between the design variables and the objective functions have been explored by the variance analysis method. It is shown that the jet-to-crossflow pressure ratio has a high remarkable impact on the total pressure recovery efficiency, as well as the number of the injection ports on the drag force performance. The drag force increases with the increase of the number of the injection ports due to the deeper penetration of the rear jets.     

Effect of jet schemes of the double-nozzle strut injector on mixing efficiency of air and hydrogen for a scramjet combustor

This work presents the numerical analysis of the DLR scramjet combustor for different jet schemes of the double-nozzle injector, namely the various injection directions, injection angles, and nozzle spacings. After comparing various jet schemes, it is found that the optimal jet scheme for the double-nozzle strut is to set the angle of 60° for the inward injection direction and the nozzle spacing of 3 mm. Furthermore, the mixing efficiency of the optimal jet scheme is investigated at different Mach numbers. The current research focuses on the mixing mechanism of air and hydrogen by analyzing the flow structures in the strut's wake region. It is observed that the double-nozzle configuration increases the number of vortexes behind the strut and creates a recirculation zone between the two jet streams. The mixing efficiency of the scramjet combustor improves significantly with an increase in the injection angle, but the spacing and direction of the double-nozzle have little effect on the mixing efficiency. It is found that the additional total pressure loss generated by the double-nozzle configuration can be negligible. In addition, the results show that the mixing efficiency of the optimal jet scheme for the double-nozzle is improved more significantly at low Mach numbers (e.g., Ma = 2 and 3).     

Shape effect of cavity flameholder on mixing zone of hydrogen jet at supersonic flow

Cavity flameholder is known as an efficient technique for providing the ignition zone. In this research, computational fluid dynamic is applied to study the influence of the various shapes of cavity as flameholder on the mixing efficiency inside the scramjet. To evaluate different shapes of cavity flame holder, the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations with (SST) turbulence model are solved to reveal the effect of significant parameters. The influence of trapezoidal, circle and rectangular cavity on fuel distribution is expansively analyzed. Moreover, the influence of various Mach numbers (M = 1.2, 2 and 3) on mixing rate and flow feature inside the cavity is examined. The comprehensive parametric studies are also done. Our findings show that the trapezoidal cavity is more efficient than other shapes in the preservation of the ignition zone within the cavity. In addition, the increase of free stream Mach number intensifies the main circulations within cavity and this induces a stable ignition zone within cavity.     

URANS study of pulsed hydrogen jet characteristics and mixing enhancement in supersonic crossflow

In this paper, three-dimensional pulsed hydrogen jet in supersonic crossflow (PJISC) is investigated by the unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) simulations with the k-ω shear stress transport (SST) turbulence model. The numerical validation and mesh resolution have been carried out against experiment firstly. The effects of the pulsed frequency and amplitude on the jet flow field and mixing performance in supersonic cross-flow are all addressed. It significantly changes the distribution of the hydrogen jet flow by comparing with the steady jet in supersonic crossflow. The fuel jet penetration, mixing efficiency, decay rate of the maximum hydrogen mass fraction and total pressure losses are used to quantitatively analyze the mixing performance. The mixing of fuel and incoming air flow is enhanced by the pulsed jet, especially for the case of 50 kHz, which is the optimal pulsed frequency while considering the effects of jet excitation frequency in the present simulations. The decay rate of the maximum mass fraction of hydrogen in the far field downstream is related to the frequency of the pulse jet. Moreover, the pulsed frequency and amplitude have little effects on the total pressure recovery coefficient for the cases studied in the present simulations.     

Numerical investigation on mixing process of a sonic fuel jet into a supersonic crossflow

The mixing process of a fuel jet in a supersonic crossflow is one of the significant issues for the design of the scramjet combustor. In this paper, the orthogonal analysis was employed to investigate the influences of the parameters of the supersonic mainstream and the fuel jet on the mixing process. Eight variables were considered and 27 cases were performed by the three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) coupled with the shear stress transport (SST) turbulence model. The results show that the jet patterns can be divided into three categories by calculating the velocity ratio, named attachment pattern, transition pattern, and separation pattern, respectively. The extreme difference analysis indicates that the total pressure and Mach number of the mainstream, the total pressure of the fuel jet, and the diameter of the jet hole have a remarkable impact on the penetration depth and total pressure recovery. Additionally, a new dimensionless number named BS was proposed. And the penetration depth and total pressure recovery can be fitted to different functions of the BS. The fitted curves show that the larger penetration depth and smaller total pressure loss are generated as the BS increases. Finally, another new dimensionless number named LJ was proposed. And a positive correlation between the LJ and mixing efficiency has been elaborated based on analyzing the influence mechanism of the streamwise vortexes and the shockwaves on the mixing process. These correlations can provide help for primary optimization of supersonic combustor.     

Numerical simulation of mixing of hydrogen jet at supersonic cross flow in presence of upstream wavy wall

The spreading of hydrogen jet within the combustion chamber is extremely important for the fuel consumption and enactment of scramjet engines. In this article, a numerical method is used to simulate the influence of wavy wall on distribution of the hydrogen cross flow jet in the downstream of the injectors. To examine the main role of wavy surface on the fuel distribution, a 3-D model is selected with an appropriate grid to detect the primary interaction of the hydrogen fuel jet with the deflected supersonic free stream. Code was developed to solve the Navier-stokes equation with energy and species mass transport equations. This study compares the effect of the amplitude of the wavy upstream wall on the main flow structure and hydrogen fuel distribution within the confined channel. The effects of hydrogen jet pressure on the main stream are also studied. Our findings display that the mixing rate of fuel inside the combustor rises about 35% when high amplitude surface wall is applied in the upstream of jet.     

Effects of cavity-induced mixing enhancement under oblique shock wave interference: Numerical study

In this research, the effects of oblique shock on the mixing characteristics in a supersonic combustor equipped with a cavity is numerically investigated. To reveal the flow structure of the supersonic flow field under oblique shock wave interference, three-dimensional steady RANS equations and SST k-ω turbulence model are adopted. The current work focuses on comparing the interaction effects between oblique shock wave and bow shock wave, which are formed by fuel jet on fuel mixing under different conditions. The numerical analysis demonstrates that an optimal angle exists for the mixing efficiency of the ramp. The optimal angle diminishes as the jet-to-crossflow pressure ratio increases. The oblique shock wave in a certain range is conducive to enhance the penetration depth of ethylene. The smaller angle of the ramp does not cause large stagnation pressure losses.     

Mixing performance of transverse hydrogen/air multi-jet through coaxial injector arrays in supersonic crossflow

Increasing the fuel mixing performance substantially improves the overall performance of the scramjet engine for a long-distance flight. In this paper, the influence of coaxial injector arrays of hydrogen/air multi-jet on the mixing performance of the fuel in supersonic crossflow is fully investigated. Our main goal is to examine the impacts of air and fuel coaxial injector on fuel distribution and penetration downstream of injectors in different operating conditions. In this study, fuel and air are simultaneously injected through coaxial multi-jet at sonic condition while of free-stream Mach number is 4. Computational Fluid Dynamic is applied for simulation of the transverse coaxial jet at supersonic crossflow. The effect of jet diameter with the same mass flow rate of air and hydrogen on fuel mixing is also investigated. The mixing efficiency of different jet spaces and pressures is also examined to obtain an optimum jet arrangement in the combustor chamber. Our study shows that the injection of the coaxial air/hydrogen jet noticeably improves mixing downstream by augmentation of fuel interaction with an air jet. Our results also show that fuel jet space of 7 Dj offers maximum fuel mixing by the formation of multi vortices with uniform strength.     

Effect of hybrid coaxial air and hydrogen jets on fuel mixing at supersonic crossflow

In this research study, a computational method is applied to examine the impacts of coaxial hybrid air and fuel jets on fuel mixing at the supersonic cross-flow of Mach = 4. This study examined the coaxial air and fuel jet effects on main parameters i. e. circulation, mixing efficiency, and fuel penetration. Computational Fluid Dynamic is employed for the modelling of the coaxial jet at cross supersonic flow. Reynolds Average Navier-Stocks equations with SST turbulence model for achieving hydrodynamic feature of the main model. Impacts of air-jet pressure and nozzle configurations on fuel distribution are also presented and the main effective factors for efficient fuel mixing condition are explained. Our results disclosed that injection of coaxial air and fuel jets at supersonic cross airflow significantly improves the fuel penetration and mixing inside the combustion chamber. Flow study analysis shows that the coaxial injector augments the spiral feature of the fuel jet, which surges fuel mixing downstream. Our circulation analysis confirms that circulation strength increases in far away from an injector by the injection of a coaxial air jet.     

Computational study of the multi hydrogen jets in presence of the upstream step in a Ma=4 supersonic flow

The injection of the hydrogen is the main noteworthy stage for the advance of the supersonic engine. In our computational study, the incidence of the step condition in the upstream of the hydrogen multi-jet is investigated for the augmentation of the fuel distribution in downside of the fuel jets at Mach = 4. To perform our research, a 3-dimensional computational domain is taken to unveil the primary flow organization of the hydrogen jets and its interactions with the freestream for the advance of fuel mixing. This work comprehensively examined the impression of the jet pressure on the mixing value and flow structure. Besides, the three-dimensional outcome of the step on the pattern of the four multi-jets is compared with the single equivalent jet. According to our results, the existence of step improves the fuel mixing efficiency up to 30% close to of early jets. Our findings reveal that increasing the step height from 0.5 to 2 mm enhances the fuel mixing more than 15%.     

Effect of a revolved wedge strut induced mixing enhancement for a hydrogen fueled scramjet combustor

The mixing concept of fuel and air is the burning issue for hypersonic vehicles (scramjet) due to the less resident time of supersonic air in the combustion chamber. So far, significant research has been done for mixing enhancement and introduced different technologies; still, there is a lack of research for mixing improvement. Shock wave and shear mixing layer are the main parameters for investigating mixing criteria at supersonic speed. In this research, an innovative fuel injection strut has been designed to develop mixing enhancement by elevating multiple interactions between the shock wave and shear mixing layer. This new strut has been designed with the reference of the DLR scramjet combustor. From the reference of a wedge-shaped strut, a revolved (wedge shape – circular 3D) wedge strut has been modeled with the same fuel injection base points. This new strut's performance has been analyzed for mixing enhancement by visualizing the development of shock wave, shear-mixing layer, and their interactions. Three-dimensional numerical analysis has been carried out by solving the Reynolds-Averaged and Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations. A comparison of results has been made for the basic wedge and new strut and identified the increase in multiple interactions of the shock wave and shear layer, which leads to an increase in mixing enhancement. For the new strut, complete mixing has been achieved within a distance of 0.180 m with an average increase in mixing efficiency of 9% and increased pressure losses of 12%.     

Effect of free stream angle on mixing performance of hydrogen multi-jets in supersonic combustion chamber

The fuel mixing process within the combustion chamber is a critical procedure for advance of scramjet engine. In current study, the influence of free stream angle on the fuel mixing process of multi jets was thoroughly investigated. This research attempts to applied computational technique to disclose the structure of multi-fuel jets when the supersonic air stream is not normal to the jet direction. The effect of both positive and negative supersonic free stream on the diffusion and penetration of multi-hydrogen jets is fully described. The attention of this research is the flow structure of the multi jets and their interaction in the presence of different free stream angle. Our results indicate that the positive free stream angle expands the mixing zone in the downstream while the negative angle of free stream limited jet distribution inside the combustor. Our results show that mixing efficiency increase approximately 50% when the angle of free stream augments from +20° to −20°. According to our findings, mixing efficiency surges up to 17% when the jet spaces are increased from 4Dj to 10 Dj.     

Effect of shock waves on supersonic film cooling with a slotted wall

A slotted wall with a cavity which reduces the effect of the shock wave on the film cooling was developed through understanding of the mechanism by which the shock wave affects the supersonic film cooling. Numerical results show that the supersonic film cooling effectiveness with the slotted wall is improved after the shock wave incidence, even better than that without the shock wave effect. The cooling stream flows into the cavity upstream of the slotted wall and flows out downstream, which bypasses more cooling gas to protect the surface downstream after the shock wave incidence, which weakens the effect of the shock wave on the film cooling. Upstream of the shock wave incidence, the slotted wall reduces the mixing between the mainstream and the cooling stream and the coolant boundary layer thickness, which reduces the film cooling effectiveness for both structures than without the slotted wall, with an effectiveness which nearly the same as or even a little better than without the slotted wall for another structure.     

The influence of annular lobe-injector on the fuel mixing of hydrogen jet at supersonic combustion chamber

The performance of the engine highly depends on the fuel mixing process as a significant process to achieve efficient supersonic flight. Current article has attempted to release the effects of different annular lobe-injectors on fuel mixing when Ma>1. Three various annular jet nozzles are expansively investigated for injection of the sonic hydrogen jet at supersonic air crossflow with Mach-4. Comprehensive comparison of the jet structure of these models are performed through the evaluation of Mach and fuel concentration downstream of these lobe-injectors. Comparison of mixing efficiency also indicates that the nozzle with 3-lobe configuration has 25% more fuel mixing performance than other configurations. Our findings also show that mixing performance of annular lobe-injector is about 15% more than simple one for cases with 2-lobe and 4-lobe injectors.     

The Two-Dimensional Supersonic Flow and Mixing with a Perpendicular Injection in a Scramjet Combustor

A numerical investigation has been performed on supersonic mixing of hydrogen with air in a Scramjet (Supersonic Combustion Ramjet) combustor and its flame holding capability by solving Two-Dimensional full Navier-Stokes equations. The main flow is air entering through a finite width of inlet and gaseous hydrogen is injected perpendicularly from the side wall. An explicit Harten-Yee Non-MUSCL Modified-flux-type TVD scheme has been used to solve the system of equations, and a zero-equation algebraic turbulence model to calculate the eddy viscosity coefficient. In this study the enhancement of mixing and good flame holding capability of a supersonic combustor have been investigated by varying the distance of injector position from left boundary keeping constant the backward-facing step height and other calculation parameters. The results show that the configuration for small distance of injector position has high mixing efficiency but the upstream recirculation can not evolved properly which is an importa     

Effect of fuel jet arrangement on the mixing rate inside trapezoidal cavity flame holder at supersonic flow

Fuel mixing inside the supersonic combustion chamber is a significant process for development of modern scramjets. In this article, computational fluid dynamic (CFD) approach is applied to investigate the effect of various fuel injections on the mixing rate inside the supersonic combustion chamber. The mixing of hydrogen jets with four different arrangements inside the cavity flame holder is comprehensively studied. In order to examine the effect of multi jets within a cavity flameholder, a three-dimensional model is established and Navier-stocks equations are solved to simulate the flow and mixing zone inside a cavity region. Obtained results show that the injection of hydrogen jet from the bottom of cavity flame holder considerable enhances the ignition zone within the cavity. Moreover, the backward fuel injection is more superior to forward fuel injection since low-pressure vortex could significantly distribute the fuel and enlarge the mixing zone inside the cavity flame holder.