Transverse sonic injection, usually in a staged manner, in a confined
environment is a necessity in the design of an efficient combustion chamber.
The design requires an analysis of the mixing of the injectant with incoming
stream as efficient combustion depends upon good mixing. This kind of
analysis needs numerical model/simulation to assess the mixing of the two
streams. To determine the suitability of an existing software package for
such a study, staged transverse sonic injection into a Mach 2 stream in a
confined environment is taken as a test case. The experimental conditions of
McDaniel et al are reproduced for this
simulation. In this experiment, staged transverse injection of sonic jet
behind the backward facing step in Mach 2 stream was carried out and
profiles of various flow parameters were measured. The numerical simulation
solves the 3D Navier-Stokes equations with a k –
ε turbulence model using the PARallel Aerodynamic Simulator PARAS3D.
Computed results show a good match for injectant penetration profile
although the computations predict slightly higher penetration near the
orifice location. Detailed comparison of flow parameter profiles between
computed and experimental data reveal that in the zone away from the
injection orifice, computations predict the flow field reasonable well.
However, in the vicinity of the orifice, there are some differences between
experimental data and computed results. These differences could be due to
non-uniform inlet profile in the experiment and/or inadequacy of the
turbulence model considered in the study.