Effect of Fin-Guided Fuel Injection on Dual-Mode Scramjet Operation

Aguilera, Camilo; Yu, Kenneth H.

doi:10.2514/1.b36305

Cited by 11 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 26 publications

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“…Technologies using strong vortices to enhance mixing, such as strut injection and hypermixers, provide substantial improvement in mixing efficiency. Simple struts have been used to successfully increase fuel plume penetration (6,7) . Addition of vortex generating shapes to the struts also produces a substantial increase in mixing rate (8,9) .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effect of scramjet inlet vortices on fuel plume elongation and mixing rate

2019

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Hypersonic air-breathing propulsion can improve cost and flexibility of Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellite launch missions. However, at the high flight Mach numbers required for access-to-space, performance margins are extremely tight. Techniques to improve mixing efficiency can push this technology forward. However, these are required to produce a minimal increase in losses and heat loads to be viable. The use of inlet-generated vortices in scramjets for mixing enhancement was previously studied. These vortices interact with the injected fuel plume, stretching it and increasing its effective surface for mixing. Moreover, these vortices are intrinsic to the flowfield. Therefore, contrary to other methods, when using inlet vortices mixing is enhanced without producing additional heat loads or losses. This work studies the vortex-injection interaction through numerical RANS simulations. A non-dimensional variable defining the quality of the plume shape for mixing purposes is proposed. This parameter is used to assess the effect of vortex intensity and injector location on fuel plume shape. The results show the ability of inlet vortices to modify fuel plume shape significantly increasing fuel mixing rate with minimal impact on losses.

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