Numerical Study of Influences of Incident Shock Wave Interaction with

Transverse Hydrogen Injecton on the Mixing and Combustoin by a High Order

Numerical Scheme for Supersonic Reactive Flows

Y. Shoraka* and S. Tabejamaat*

yshoraka@aut.ac.ir
* Aerospace Engineering Department, Amirkabir University of Technology,
Tehran, IRAN

Scramjets have high specific impulse at high Mach number. Therefore, as

being one of the most efficient air-breathing engines, they are an
indispensable technology for hypersonic vehicles. Due to a short duration of
time for mixing and combustion, the control of combustion in supersonic
airstream is a difficult task. Therefore, supersonic combustor is a crucial
element in the development of Scramjets. Moreover, since many shock
waves exist in the supersonic combustor, their interaction with combustion
and mixing processes inside the combustor make the control of supersonic
combustion even more complicated. Due to wide range of operating
conditions for a hypersonic vehicle, the location and the strength of shock
waves inside the combustor could vary drastically which could make
supersonic combustion uncontrollable. Therefore, it is essential to study the
fundamental mechanism of the interaction of shock waves with mixing and
combustion processes inside the supersonic combustor.
Hydrogen produces more specific impulse and has smaller characteristic
combustion time in comparison with hydrocarbon fuels; therefore, it is one of
the most promising fuels for the Scramjets. On the other hand transverse
injection results in rapid mixing, and, consequently enhances the flame
stabilization.
Therefore, influences of incident shock wave interaction with transverse
hydrogen injecton on the mixing and combustoin in the supersonic flows is
numerically invesitgated in the current research.
To avoid the impacts of dissipative characteristics of low order numerical
schemes on resolving complicated shock structures, and, turbulent flow
statistics; high order numerical schemes are required. Therefore, a high order
finite volume scheme is used for the simulation of Reynolds-averaged

NavierStokes (RANS) and hybrid large-eddy/Reynolds-averaged Navier

Stokes (LES/RANS) simulations of two and three dimensional chemical
reacting flow. In the adopted scheme Inviscid fluxes are discretized using
low-dissipation PPM method recommended by Edwards [1], and, 2 nd order
central difference scheme is used for discretization of viscous fluxes. The
species equations and the convective fluid dynamic equations are solved in a
coupled fully implicit manner. Hydrogen and air combustion is simulated by
means of a full chemical mechanism consisting of 9 species, 37 step
reactions. Cell averaged data is used for calculation of species production
rate. In RANS simulations, Menters k- turbulence model is used. For
LES/RANS simulations, a hybrid large-eddy simulation/Reynolds-averaged
NavierStokes presented in [1] is implemented. The species production rates
are calculated based on laminar chemistry assumption for RANS simulations,
whereas for LES/RANS simulations, Gaussian quadrature closure that is
formulated by Edwards [1] is implemented to account for sub-cell effects,. In
order to validate the developed code, obtained numerical results are
compared with available experimental data in the open literature.
Two dimensional RANS simulations conducted in the current research reveal
that without incident shock wave the auto ignition of the hydrogen jet occurs
in high temperature airstream. Nevertheless the flame will subsequently
quenched downstream of the injector which is consistent with experimental
results [2]. When the incident shock wave is introduced upstream of the
injector, the flow field distorts drastically, and, the flame stabilization could
not be achieved. However, When the incident shock wave is introduced
downstream of the injector, the flame stabilization is confirmed which is
consistent with previous experimental and numerical observations [3].
Three dimensional RANS simulations reveal that when the incident shock
wave is introduced downstream of the injector, higher concentration of the
injected hydrogen fuel is present in the recirculation zone just downstream of
the injector. These results demonstrated that the incident shockwave
enhances the mixing process for the fuel and oxidizer which plays an
important role in the flame stabilization that is previously observed in two
dimensional RANS simulations. Three dimensional RANS simulations also
show that when the incident shock wave is introduced downstream of the
injector, large scale recirculation zones and circular flows will be generated
downstream of the injector. These three dimensional phenomena, which
could not be detected by two dimensional simulations, have a great
influence on mixing process and prolongation of fuel residence time,
therefore, enhance the supersonic combustion process and stabilize the
flame.

Three dimensional LES/RANS simulations are conducted, in order to

investigate the fundamental mechanisms of incident shock wave interaction
with transverse flow. These simulations are perfomed for in depth analysis of
the creation of large scale recirculation zones and circular flows which are
mentioned above.
Two dimensional RANS simulations have also shown the possibility of flame
quenching when the incident shock wave is introduced upstream of the
injector. Three dimensional RANS and LES/RANS simulations are underway to
study this phenomenon further.
References
[1]
[2]
[3]

Edwards, J. R., Boles, J. A. and Baurle, R. A., Large-eddy/Reynoldsaveraged NavierStokes simulation of a supersonic reacting wall jet,
Combust. Flame. 129:1127-1138 (2012).
Ben-Yakar, A., Hanson, R. K., Experimental Investigation of FlameHolding Capability of Hydrogen Transverse Jet in Supersonic CrossFlow, Proc. Comb. Inst. 27:2173-2180 (1988).
Mai, T., Sakimitsu, Y., Nakamura, H., Ogami, Y., Kudo, T., Kobayahi., H.,
Effect of incident shock wave interacting with transversal jet flow on
the mixing and combustion, Proc. Comb. Inst. 33:2335-2342 (2011).