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A numerical study of turbulent combustion characteristics in a combustion chamber of a scramjet engine

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Abstract

3D numerical simulation of flow fields in a combustion chamber of a scramjet engine using an SST turbulence model with an explicit compressibility correction was performed and the results were compared to the experimental results. The characteristics of the turbulent combustion flow fields were analyzed via the numerical results and presented. In order to identify the mechanisms of turbulent combustion in supersonic flows, the evolutions of governing dimensionless parameters in the flow fields were investigated based on the theory of combustion and the available numerical results. It was found that the supersonic combustion takes place in the region of fully developed turbulence and that the strongest effects of turbulence and combustion processes appear in the vicinity of the injector. The unsteady effects and the local flame extinction phenomenon induced by turbulent flows were found to be negligibly small, and the steady flamelet approximation will hold for practical applications.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Aeronautical Sciences and Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, 100191, China

    ZhenXun Gao & ChunHian Lee

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  1. ZhenXun Gao
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  2. ChunHian Lee
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Correspondence to ZhenXun Gao.

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Gao, Z., Lee, C. A numerical study of turbulent combustion characteristics in a combustion chamber of a scramjet engine. Sci. China Technol. Sci. 53, 2111–2121 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-010-3088-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11431-010-3088-3

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