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Experimental Investigation of Ignition Stability in a Cyclic Constant-Volume Combustion Chamber Featuring Relevant Conditions for Air-Breathing Propulsion

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Abstract

Pressure-gain combustion concepts are developed around the world as solutions to reach the ambitious target of the ultra-efficient aircraft road map for 2050 that requires a 20% reduction of specific fuel consumption of the engine. This reduction can be obtained by increasing the thermodynamic efficiency. Several patterned designs apply the Humphrey deflagration-based constant-volume combustion (CVC) to parallel piston-less combustors. Recently, a proof of concept constant-volume combustor was operated in representative aircraft combustor conditions. This study evidenced reliable operating regimes, but also critical design issues related to some of the most challenging combustion fields: ignition stability, flame propagation in non-perfectly-premixed conditions and trapped residual gases, as well as cycle hysteresis. A lab-scale facility (CV2) was designed to study and further improve our understanding of such CVC phenomena. The facility features the cyclic operation of constant-volume combustion, independently of a specific technology of intake and exhaust systems, at representative aircraft combustor conditions over more than 10 cycles. The results presented in the paper concern the investigation of CVC stability with a variation of the spark-ignition phasing, in direct injection of gaseous propane. The cyclic stable and unstable operating conditions have been characterized successfully by means of time-resolved PIV, pressure evolution measurements, as well as chemiluminescence visualization. A strong correlation between ignition probability and the cumulative probability density function of the local velocity is evidenced.

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Abbreviations

CVCC:

Constant-Volume Combustion Chamber

CAPA:

Chair on Alternative Combustion mode for Air-Breathing Propulsion

D st :

Propane-air mixture stoichiometric dilution in mass

ER:

Equivalence Ratio

LES:

Large Eddy Simulation

M:

Molar mass

n x, n y :

Number of vectors along the two dimensions of the velocity field

OER:

Overall Equivalence Ratio

Q :

Specific kinetic energy content of the 2D velocity field

q :

Specific kinetic energy content of the 2D turbulent fluctuation field

t0–10 :

Time from the ignition to 10% of the maximum combustion pressure

t10–90 :

Time from 10% to 90% of the maximum combustion pressure

TR-PIV:

Time-Resolved Particle-Image Velocimetry

u :

Velocity vector field

u 1, u 2 :

Velocity components

u ′ :

Turbulent fluctuation vector field

u′1, u′2 :

Turbulent fluctuation components

u LF :

Low spatial frequency components of the velocity fluctuation field

u HF :

High spatial frequency components of the velocity fluctuation field

V :

Tank volume

V lim :

Statistical limit velocity

λ :

Aspect ratio of the combustion chamber

t × f :

Time normalized by the cycle frequency

γ a, γ f :

Ratio of heat capacity

∆p :

Pressure variation measured in a tank

τ av :

Time scale for the temporal averaging of the velocity fields

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Acknowledgements

This work is part of the CAPA Chair, a research program on Alternative Combustion Mode for Air-breathing Propulsion supported by SAFRAN Tech, MBDA France and ANR (National Research Agency).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut Pprime, CNRS, ISAE-ENSMA, Université de Poitiers, F-86962, Futuroscope Chasseneuil, France

    Quentin Michalski, Bastien Boust & Marc Bellenoue

Authors
  1. Quentin Michalski
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  2. Bastien Boust
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  3. Marc Bellenoue
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Correspondence to Quentin Michalski.

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Conflict of Interest

Quentin MICHALSKI has received grants research from the CAPA Chair (a joint research program between SAFRAN, MBDA and ANR). The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

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Michalski, Q., Boust, B. & Bellenoue, M. Experimental Investigation of Ignition Stability in a Cyclic Constant-Volume Combustion Chamber Featuring Relevant Conditions for Air-Breathing Propulsion. Flow Turbulence Combust 102, 279–298 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10494-019-00015-1

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