Nonlinear analysis of pressure oscillations in ramjet engines

Pressure oscillations in ramjet engines have been studied using an approximate method which treats the flow fields in the inlet and the combustor separately. The acoustic fields in the combustor are expressed as syntheses of coupled nonlinear oscillators corresponding to the acoustic modes of the chamber. The influences of the inlet flow appear in the admittance function at the inlet /combustor interface, providing the necessary boundary condition for calculation of the combustor flow. A general framework dealing with nonlinear multi-degree-of-freedom system has also been constructed to study the time evolution of each mode. Both linear and nonlinear stabilities are treated. The results obtained serve as a basis for investigating the existence and stabilities of limit cycles for acoustic modes. As a specific example, the analysis is applied to a problem of nonlinear transverse oscillations in ramjet engines

Overview of Combustion Instabilities in Liquid-Propellant Rocket Engines

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Longitudinal Combustion Instabilities in Ramjet Engines: Identification of Acoustic Modes

Longitudinal combustion instabilities in liquid-fueled ramjet engines have been investigated with attention focused on determination of the acoustic mode structures. Detailed pressure measurements, including both amplitude and phase, were made at ten positions spanning the length of the engine. The experimental data have been analyzed using two linear acoustic models. Four distinct modes were observed for various inlet/combustor combinations. These results help identify the mechanisms exciting low-frequency pressure oscillations in ramjet engines

An efficient surrogate model for emulation and physics extraction of large eddy simulations

In the quest for advanced propulsion and power-generation systems, high-fidelity simulations are too computationally expensive to survey the desired design space, and a new design methodology is needed that combines engineering physics, computer simulations and statistical modeling. In this paper, we propose a new surrogate model that provides efficient prediction and uncertainty quantification of turbulent flows in swirl injectors with varying geometries, devices commonly used in many engineering applications. The novelty of the proposed method lies in the incorporation of known physical properties of the fluid flow as {simplifying assumptions} for the statistical model. In view of the massive simulation data at hand, which is on the order of hundreds of gigabytes, these assumptions allow for accurate flow predictions in around an hour of computation time. To contrast, existing flow emulators which forgo such simplications may require more computation time for training and prediction than is needed for conducting the simulation itself. Moreover, by accounting for coupling mechanisms between flow variables, the proposed model can jointly reduce prediction uncertainty and extract useful flow physics, which can then be used to guide further investigations.Comment: Submitted to JASA A&C

Open-source development experiences in scientific software: the HANDE quantum Monte Carlo project

The HANDE quantum Monte Carlo project offers accessible stochastic algorithms for general use for scientists in the field of quantum chemistry. HANDE is an ambitious and general high-performance code developed by a geographically-dispersed team with a variety of backgrounds in computational science. In the course of preparing a public, open-source release, we have taken this opportunity to step back and look at what we have done and what we hope to do in the future. We pay particular attention to development processes, the approach taken to train students joining the project, and how a flat hierarchical structure aids communicationComment: 6 pages. Submission to WSSSPE

Third-order nonlinear acoustic waves and triggering of pressure oscillations in combustion chambers. Part I: Longitudinal modes

An analytical analysis has been developed to investigate the behavior of unsteady motions in combustion chambers. The model accommodates the third-order nonlinear acoustics and a second-order combustion response. Ths influences of various linear and nonlinear parameters on the limit cycles and triggering of pressure osoillations are disoussed in detail. Results indicate that the third-order acoustics has little influence on the triggering of instability. It only affects the limiting amplitudes and the stability domains of limit cycles. The nonlinear combustion response plays an essential role in determining the characteristics of triggering

An Approach to Improved Credibility of CFD Simulations for Rocket Injector Design

Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has the potential to improve the historical rocket injector design process by simulating the sensitivity of performance and injector-driven thermal environments to. the details of the injector geometry and key operational parameters. Methodical verification and validation efforts on a range of coaxial injector elements have shown the current production CFD capability must be improved in order to quantitatively impact the injector design process.. This paper documents the status of an effort to understand and compare the predictive capabilities and resource requirements of a range of CFD methodologies on a set of model problem injectors. Preliminary results from a steady Reynolds-Average Navier-Stokes (RANS), an unsteady Reynolds-Average Navier Stokes (URANS) and three different Large Eddy Simulation (LES) techniques used to model a single element coaxial injector using gaseous oxygen and gaseous hydrogen propellants are presented. Initial observations are made comparing instantaneous results, corresponding time-averaged and steady-state solutions in the near -injector flow field. Significant differences in the flow fields exist, as expected, and are discussed. An important preliminary result is the identification of a fundamental mixing mechanism, accounted for by URANS and LES, but missing in the steady BANS methodology. Since propellant mixing is the core injector function, this mixing process may prove to have a profound effect on the ability to more correctly simulate injector performance and resulting thermal environments. Issues important to unifying the basis for future comparison such as solution initialization, required run time and grid resolution are addressed