Numerical Investigation of an Axisymmetric Model Scramjet Assisted with Cavity of Different Aft Wall Angles

Abstract

An axisymmetric model scramjet assisted with cavity flameholder is numerically investigated. Three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes simulation is carried out to reveal the fuel mixing and combustion characteristics. The simulation results show reasonable agreements with experimental data. The analysis indicates that the axisymmetric and rectangular scramjet has some similarities to the cavity shear layer in the nonreacting flow field. The configuration of the cavity shear layer changes hugely due to the significant chemical reaction and heat release in the reacting flow field. Typically, two more configurations with different cavity aft wall angles are compared with the experimental configuration to optimize the configuration of the cavity. When the cavity aft wall angle is small, the cavity shear layer bends to the cavity floor and more fuel enters into and stays in the cavity, which results in poor fuel mixing performance. With the increase of the aft wall angle, the fuel distributes more uniformly and the fuel mixing efficiency improves. In the reacting flow field, the volume of the cavity full of hot products and free radicals increases while the interaction between the cavity and main flow decreases with the increase of the aft wall angle. The improved combustion efficiency shows that larger cavity volume weighs more than reduced interaction between the cavity and main flow. The combustion is more violent in the case with a larger aft wall angle. Therefore, a proper increase of the aft wall angle is beneficial to the performance of cavity-assisted axisymmetric scramjet when designing the cavity flameholder.