Transverse jet-cavity interactions with the influence of an impinging shock

For high-speed air breathing engines, fuel injection and subsequent mixing with air is paramount for combustion. The high freestream velocity poses a great challenge to efficient mixing both in macroscale and microscale. Utilising cavities downstream of fuel injection locations, as a means to hold the flow and stabilise the combustion, is one mechanism which has attracted much attention, requiring further research to study the unsteady flow features and interactions occurring within the cavity. In this study we combine the transverse jet injection upstream of a cavity with an impinging shock to see how this interaction influences the cavity flow, since impinging shocks have been shown to enhance mixing of transverse jets. Utilising qualitative and quantitative methods: schlieren, oilflow, PIV, and PSP the induced flowfield is analysed. The impinging shock lifts the shear layer over the cavity and combined with the instabilities generated by the transverse jet creates a highly complicated flowfield with numerous vertical structures. The interaction between the oblique shock and the jet leads to a relatively uniform velocity distribution within the cavity

Simulation of a sonic jet injected into a supersonic cross-flow

A hybrid RANS–LES approach is used to simulate the evolution of a sonic underexpanded transverse 4mm diameter round air jet injected into a Mach 1.6 air cross-flow. Important features of the flow, including a bow shock wave, barrel shock, Mach disk and large-scale unsteady vortical structures in the jet-free-stream shear layer, are similar to those observed in previous experimental studies. A small recirculation region emerges upstream of the jet owing to separation of the approaching boundary layer. This generates a ‘necklace’ vortex that wraps around the jet and later interacts with the stream-wise-orientated counter-rotating vortex pair within the jet plume. Contours of Reynolds stresses and turbulent kinetic energy from the simulation were compared with experimental measurements. Reasonable qualitative agreement was observed, but the simulation tended to under-predict the peak values. Therefore, the velocity fluctuations recorded in the simulation are somewhat smaller than those measured experimentally. It is likely that this reduced unsteadiness is caused by a lack of grid resolution

Visualization of leading edge vortices on a series of flat plate delta wings

A summary of flow visualization data obtained as part of NASA Grant NAG2-258 is presented. During the course of this study, many still and high speed motion pictures were taken of the leading edge vortices on a series of flat plate delta wings at varying angles of attack. The purpose is to present a systematic collection of photographs showing the state of vortices as a function of the angle of attack for the four models tested

COMPUTATIONAL SIMULATION OF SCRAMJET COMBUSTORS - A COMPARISON BETWEEN QUASI-ONE DIMENSIONAL AND 2-D NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS

1-D simulations based on the quasi-one-dimensional equations of fluid motion plus an ignition delay model and 2-D numerical simulations based on Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations have been performed for two different scramjet combustors. The combustor configurations at DLR and NASA's SCHOLAR Supersonic Combustor have been used as test cases for the 1-D and 2-D simulations. Comparisons between the published 3-D computational and experimental results and quasi-one-dimensional and 2-D simulations have been performed. The quasi-one dimensional modeling of NASA's SCHOLAR supersonic combustor captures the trends in Mach number, static pressure and static temperature for both cold flow and combustion case. The comparison with experimental result for combustion case reveals a close agreement with the pressure peak and the presence of an ignition delay. Thus, 1-D simulation very closely predicts the flow evolution within the combustor. On the other hand, for DLR supersonic combustor, due to the lack of oblique wave (i.e. shock waves and expansion waves) and shear dominated viscous flow simulation, 1-D model severely fails to predict the trend followed by the experimental result along the centerline of the combustor. However, the 1-D model is able to match the overall flow velocity achieved within the combustor downstream of the wedge at approximately six wedge chord lengths

Numerical Investigations of a High Frequency Pulsed Gaseous Fuel Jet Injection into a Supersonic Crossflow

The investigation of fuel delivery mechanisms is a critical design point in the development of supersonic combustion ramjet (scramjet) technology. Primary challenges include proper penetration of the jet in the supersonic cross-flow while keeping total pressure losses and wall drag to a minimum. To reduce drag and heat loads especially at high burner entry Mach numbers it is desirable to use a minimally intrusive means of fuel delivery. Pulsation of gaseous jets has been shown to increase penetration and mixing in subsonic flows. A limited number of experimental studies and even fewer numerical studies have suggested that when applied to supersonic crossflows, gaseous jets pulsed in the kilohertz range of frequencies improve jet penetration and mixing. To improve on the limited number of numerical studies of pulsed jets in supersonic crossflows (PJISF), 2D and 3D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation models of non-excited (steady) and sinusoidally excited (pulsed) jets were constructed using ANSYS FLUENT 15.0. The 2D results included pulsation at 8, 16, 32 and 48 kHz. These simulation results showed that pulsation at 16 kHz provided the best penetration improvement in the jet near field and far field among all frequencies sampled. A 3D wall-modeled Large Eddy Simulation (WMLES) was constructed with the goals resolving large scale turbulent flow structure and time evolution of a jet pulsed in a supersonic crossflow, as well as to compare the effects of sinusoidal pulsation at 16 kHz with steady injection for the same flow conditions as the 2D case. A comparison of the jet trajectories between the steady and pulsed injection cases demonstrated that for sinusoidal pulsation of a jet at 16 kHz over the equivalent cycle averaged injection total pressure and momentum flux ratio, pressure, jet penetration is improved over the steady jet, up to 50% in the near field of the jet. Furthermore, improved mass concentration decay associated with jet-crossflow mixing and far field total pressure recovery has been demonstrated as a result of pulsation of the jet

Fluorescence imaging study of free and impinging supersonic jets: Jet structure and turbulent transition

A series of experiments into the behavior of underexpanded jet flows has been conducted at NASA Langley Research Center. This work was conducted in support of the Return to Flight effort following the loss of the Columbia. The tests involved simulating flow through a hypothetical breach in the leading edge of the Space Shuttle Orbiter along its reentry trajectory, with the goal of generating a data set with which other researchers can test and validate computational modeling tools. Two nozzles supplied with high-pressure gas were used to generate axisymmetric underexpanded jets exhausting into a low-pressure chamber. These nozzles had exit Mach numbers of 1 and 2.6. Reynolds numbers based on nozzle exit conditions ranged from about 200 to 35,000, and nozzle exit-to-ambient jet pressure ratios ranged from about 1 to 37. Both free and impinging jets were studied, with impingement distances ranging from 10 to 40 nozzle diameters, and impingement angles of 45??, 60??, and 90??. For the majority of cases, the jet fluid was a mixture of 99.5% nitrogen seeded with 0.5% nitric oxide (NO).;Planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) of NO was used to non-intrusively visualize the flow with a temporal resolution on the order of lets. PLIF images were used to identify and measure the location and size of flow structures. PLIF images were further used to identify unsteady jet behavior in order to quantify the conditions governing the transition to turbulent flow. This dissertation will explain the motivation behind the work, provide details of the laser system and test hardware components, discuss the theoretical aspects of laser-induced fluorescence, give an overview of the spectroscopy of nitric oxide, and summarize the governing fluid mechanical concepts. It will present measurements of the size and location of flow structures, describe the basic mechanisms and origins of unsteady behavior in these flows, and discuss the dependence of such behavior on particular flow structures. Finally, correlations describing the relationship between flow conditions and the degree of flow unsteadiness at a given location along the jet axis will be presented

Turbulence, combustion, pollutant, and stability characterization of a premixed, step combustor

A two dimensional combustion tunnel was constructed to study a lean premixed turbulent propane/air flame stablized behind a rearward facing step. Studied were: (1) the existence and importance of large coherent structures in turbulent reacting and nonreacting free shear layers behind the steps; (2) the effect of inlet temperature and reference velocity on combustion efficiency; (3) CO, NO2 and NO sub x production in the flame; and (4) the blowout and upstream propagation of the flame. In the ranges studied, the large coherent structures dominated both the reacting and the nonreacting free shear layers behind the step. The growth of the vortices and the propagation of the flamer were intimately linked. Vortex pairing was observed to be one of the mechanisms for introduction of fresh reactants into the shear layer and growth of the shear layer. Probe composition measurements of the flame showed that, in the recirculation zone, the reaction was above 99 percent complete, CO and unburnt hydrocarbons were above the equilibrium level NO sub x concentration was far below the equilibrium level and NO2 comprised a negligible fraction of NO sub x