NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF VEHICLE SPEED INFLUENCE ON SUPERSONIC COMBUSTION FOR A SCRAMJET DEMONSTRATOR
Supersonic combustion; scramjet; transverse Injection; CFD.
The supersonic combustion ramjet, or scramjet, is a hypersonic airbreathing propulsion system that utilizes oblique or conical shockwaves to compress and decelerate air flow. Recent flight tests have demonstrated that there is viability in supersonic combustion concept, but such technology is not yet fully mastered. The objective of this Dissertation is to calculate and analyze the effects of vehicle speed variation on the supersonic combustion for a hydrogen/atmospheric air mixture on the scramjet demonstrator combustor. Three situations were evaluated: vehicle operation at design speed (Mach 6.8), lower speed (Mach 6.4) and higher than projected conditions (Mach 7.2) considering flight at a geometric altitude of 30 km for two methods of transverse fuel injection (single and double). Steady state flow was considered, calorically perfect gas and simplified chemical kinetic mechanism with 4 species and 1 chemical reaction (laminar finite-rate) and the turbulence modeled by the k-kl-ω transition model. Second order upwind schemes were used in the discretization. Variation curves of thermodynamic and species properties, visualization of the shock trains, flow contours and average properties at the isolator and combustor outputs are presented. The research revealed that there was an increase in thermodynamic properties and intensification of shock trains on the isolator with the increase of the flight speed and reduction of the amount of air admitted in the isolator due to different operational speeds, resulting from the repositioning of the inlet shock waves. Spontaneous fuel burning was contacted for all tested configurations. The burning was inefficient and kept between 10 and 22% where the double injection model was 51% more efficient than simple injection. There is then a speeds range that the vehicle can be operational. The geometry of the combustor can be extended to conserve heat energy and maintain combustion reactions within the channel longer.