Swept-Leading-Edge Pylon Effects on a Scramjet Pylon-Cavity Flameholder Flowfield

This study explores the effect of adding a pylon to the leading edge of a cavity flameholder in a scramjet combustor. Data were obtained through a combination of wind-tunnel experimentation and steady-state computational fluid dynamics. Wind-tunnel data were collected using surface pressure taps, st...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Journal of propulsion and power 2009-05, Vol.25 (3), p.571-582
Main Authors: Freeborn, Andrew B, King, Paul I, Gruber, Mark R
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Combustion chambers
Combustion products
Computational fluid dynamics
Equilibrium flow
Flow visualization
Fluid flow
Leading edges
Low pressure
Mach number
Mass flow
Particle image velocimetry
Pressure
Pressure effects
Pylons
Reynolds number
Supersonic combustion ramjet engines
Tunnels
Wind effects
Wind tunnels
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Summary:This study explores the effect of adding a pylon to the leading edge of a cavity flameholder in a scramjet combustor. Data were obtained through a combination of wind-tunnel experimentation and steady-state computational fluid dynamics. Wind-tunnel data were collected using surface pressure taps, static and total probe data, shadowgraph flow visualization, and particle image velocimetry. Computational fluid dynamics models were solved using the commercial FLUENT software. The addition of an intrusive device to the otherwise low-drag cavity flameholder offers a potential means of improving combustor performance by enabling combustion products to propagate into the main combustor flow via the low-pressure region behind the pylon. This study characterized the flowfield effects of adding the pylon as well as the effect of changing Reynolds numbers over the range of approximately 33×10633×106 to 55×106m-155×106m-1 at a Mach number of 2. The addition of the pylon resulted in approximately 3 times the mass flow passing through the cavity compared with the cavity with no pylon installed. Reynolds number effects were weak. The addition of the pylon led to the cavity fluid traveling up to the top of the pylon wake and significantly increasing the exposure and exchange of cavity fluid with the main combustor flow. [PUBLISHER ABSTRACT]
ISSN:0748-4658
1533-3876
DOI:10.2514/1.39546