Progress toward shock enhancement of supersonic combustion processes

Abstract

In air breathing propulsion systems for flight at Mach numbers 7 to 20, it is generally accepted that the combustion processes will be carried out at supersonic velocities with respect to the engine. The resulting brief residence time places a premium on rapid mixing of the fuel and air. To address this issue we &re investigating a mechanism for enhancing the rate of mixing between air and hydrogen fuel over rates that are expected in shear layers and jets. The mechanism rests upon the strong vorticity induced at the interface between a light and heavy gas by an intense pressure gradient. The specific phenomenon under investigation is the rapid mixing induced by interaction of a weak oblique shock with a cylindrical jet of hydrogen embedded in air. The status of our investigations is described in three parts: a) shock tube investigation of the distortion and mixing induced by shock waves impinging on cylindric of hydrogen embedded in air, b) the molecular mixing and chemical reaction in large vortices, periodically formed in a channel, and c) two-dimensional non-steady and three-dimensional steady numerical studies of shock interaction with cylindrical volumes of hydrogen in air.