(c)2000 American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics or published with permission of author(s) and/or author(s)’ sponsoring organization.

Combustion of Kerosene in a Supersonic Stream

Jian-Guo Li*, Gong Yu *, Xin-Yu Zhang*, Qing-Sheng Huang**
Institute of Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences
Beijing, 100080 P. R. China

Abstract additional igniting and flame-holding elements should

The investigations on characteristics of be installed in the channel. Pilot hydrogen flame
sel tignition and sustaining of kerosene-hydrogen with sufficiently high concentration of active radicals
dual fuel were conducted in a direct-connect was usually used as an ignitor and the primary fuel
supersonic combustor with a fixed entrance Mach (hydrocarbons) was injected after or before the pilot 1
flalne 13. 4. 51 Many studies demonstrated the mixing
7T
-.. The experiments were conducted with
stagnation temperature varied from 1416K to 1700 and flame-holding benefits of using a rearward-facing
K and stagnation pressure kept in 1.8 MPa. The step with fuel injection downstream or upstream of the
gep I4. -5. 7. 81
average droplet diameters of kerosene spray were
measured by using of a laser particle sizer. Four In this study the pilot hydrogen was injected
types of integrated modular structure of pilot from the base of a rearward-facing step and was
llame and recessed cavity flameholder with parallel to the airstream. Downstream of the pilot
different configurations were tested to seek the flame, kerosene was injected normally from the
required minimum hydrogen equivalence ratio for bottom of the recessed cavity. The chemical
kerosene ignition and combustion sustaining. reactions of kerosene are expected being accelerated
Under combined promotion of pilot hydrogen by the pilot hydrogen flame and promoted by the low
tlame and recessed cavity, the required minimum speed recirculation flow, which provides longer
hydrogen equivalence ratio of 0.03 was found in residence time. The minimum equivalence ratios of
an optimized condition. Performances of the the pilot-hydrogen, which were required for ignition
combustor were preliminarily estimated by using of liquid kerosene, were investigated in different
of the
home-developed code SSC-3. A conditions as follows: I) the distance between the
combustion efficiency of 50% was obtained in a liquid kerosene injectior and pilot hydrogen injector; 2)
combustor with length of 425 mm. The effects stagnation temperature of vitiated air flow; 3) recessed
of configuration of integrated modular structure cavity. A modified code SSC-3 I91 was used to
. on combustor performances were discussed. analyze the experimental data.

Introduction Experimental facility

.
l.iquid hydrocarbons, such as kerosene, are The Schematic of experimental facility is shown
attractive candidates for fueling the scramjet in the in figure I. Details of the facility have been
tlight regime of M<8 due to its simplicity of described in Ref. IO. In the experimentation, high
operation and management [‘. *I. However, except temperature vitiated test air was produced by burning
the difficulties of atomization, vaporization and hydrogen, oxygen, and air in a heater, with the
Inixing, the relatively slow chemical reaction resulting oxygen volume fraction equal to that ot
kinetics of the pure kerosene, which is two or three normal air. The heater can provide air LIP to its
orders of magnitude slower than that of hydrogen, maximum capability with a temperature of 2200 K, a
becomes the major barrier in the realization of pressure of 4.5 MPa, and a flow rate of I .5 kg/s. The
liquid hydrocarbon scramjet. In order to ignite nozzle with contour walls produces a two-dimensional
hydrocarbons and stabilize the combustion, supersonic airflow of Mach 2.5. The supersonic
combustion chamber is a rectangular duct with an
* Research professor entrance cross section of 30X 30 mm. The duct is
* * Graduate student composed of two sections, which have lengths of 125
Copyright 0 American Institute of Aeronautics mm and 300 mm respectively. Their side-walls are
and Astronautics, Inc. All rights reserved. parallel to the two-dimensional nozzle with boundary-
the second sector, a non-swirling injector substitute was
installed, which had the same effective area as the injector but
no fuel injection. The injector was co-axially fuel-staged, with
an air blast atomizer for both the pilot and main burners. At
altitude relight conditions, the pilot stage was the only fueled
stage of the injector. The igniter installed in the combustion
chamber was a standard capacitor driven aircraft engine igniter,
producing sparks with duration of about 200 µs at a rate of up
to 2 Hz. The igniter was mounted flush with the inner top
surface of the combustion chamber in the centre-plane of the
fuel injector.
This article presents some experimental results primarily
by means of four exemplary flames: A1, A2, B1, and B2. The
corresponding combustor operating conditions are listed in
Table 2.
The OH* chemiluminescence in the ultraviolet spectral
range around 310 nm was recorded with a HighSpeedStar 6
camera connected to the second high-speed image intensifier
(HS IRO 25). The camera resolution was 1024 x 1024 pixels,
and the exposure time was set to 100 µs. A Nikon lens (type
UV-Nikkor f/4.5, f=105 mm) was mounted on the image
intensifier together with two interference filters. The OH*
chemiluminescence from the flame was deflected by two high-
reflecting mirrors in order to reduce signal contributions from
the kerosene fluorescence and from the radiative soot particles.

Table 2. Combustor operating conditions.

Flame A1 A2 B1 B2
5.9 5.9 7.9 7.9
Air pressure (psia)
± 0.2 ± 0.2 ± 0.2 ± 0.2
265 265 278 278
Air temperature (K)
±1 ±1 ±2 ±2
288 288 290 290
Fuel temperature (K)
±1 ±1 ±3 ±3
0.357 0.5 0.357 0.5
Normalized air mass flow
± 0.007 ± 0.01 ± 0.007 ± 0.01
0.08 0.055 0.08 0.055
Fuel-to-air ratio
± 0.001 ± 0.001 ± 0.001 ± 0.001

MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES
A photo and a schematic of the experimental set-up for the
high-speed imaging and for the optical emission spectroscopy
are shown in Figure 2. A part of the RR test rig also is shown,
including the fuel pump system installed by RR to enable easier
changeovers between the different fuels.
Three high-speed cameras and two image intensifiers from
LaVision were used to perform simultaneous measurements of
the OH* and CH* chemiluminescence, and of the broadband
luminosity at a repetition rate of 3500 Hz. The camera systems
were arranged almost perpendicular to the flow direction.
A high-speed camera (HighSpeedStar 5) was used for
imaging the broadband luminosity during the flame initiation
and stabilization. The camera resolution was 1024 x 912 pixels Figure 2. Photo and schematic of the experimental set-up.
and the exposure time was set to 40 or 100 µs. A Nikon lens
(type Nikkor MF, f/1.4, f=85 mm) was mounted on the camera. For the safety of the image intensifier, it was necessary to
The lens aperture was varied during the measurement ensure the entire recording time was less than 500 ms to avoid
campaign. imaging the subsequent spark. The timing between ignition,
The CH* chemiluminescence in the blue spectral range camera start (trigger) plus image intensifier disable line, and
around 430 nm was recorded with the second HighSpeedStar 5 gate opening was synchronized using a high-speed
camera connected to a high-speed image intensifier programmable timing unit (HS PTU 9).
(HS IRO 25). The camera resolution was 1024 x 912 pixels, One uncertainty in the images results from the gate of the
and the exposure time was set to 100 µs. A Tokina lens (type image intensifiers (the exposure time), which was set to 100 µs
AT-X PRO MACRO 100 F2.8D, f/2.8, f=100 mm) was for both intensifiers. That means that the luminescence from
mounted on the image intensifier together with an interference particles or regions moving with velocities of 10 m/s appears
filter and a short pass filter. smeared over one millimeter in the image. Note that the

3 Copyright © 20xx by ASME

volume-averaged OH* chemiluminescence intensity recorded combustor equivalence ratio range investigated in our research.
by the high-speed camera system. Both spectra show the Note that soot is only present in fuel-rich regions and its
typical appearance of hydrocarbon flames, with strong luminosity depends on soot concentration and temperature.
chemiluminescence bands of the electronically excited radicals According to the Stefan-Boltzmann law, the soot luminosity is
OH*, CH* and C2* (The asterisk indicates an excited proportional to the fourth power of the soot temperature.
molecule.), originating from the combustion processes [14-17]. Therefore, the luminosity contributions from soot particles at
The spectra are superposed by a broad CO2* high temperatures are over-represented in the recorded volume-
chemiluminescence band ranging from 250 nm to 600 nm. averaged flame emission spectra.

50
CH* 2500

40
Relative intensity [-]

2000
soot

Temperature [K]
30
C2*
radiation 1500

C2*
20 OH* C2* 1000
Flame: B2
C2*
Fuel: Jet A-1
CO2* Estimated mean flame temperatures at 6 psia
10 CH* Measured spectrum 500 Estimated mean flame temperatures at 8 psia
OH* Planck's law other symbols: soot temperatures at 6 psia (red) and 8 psia (black)
0 0
300 400 500 600 700 800 0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1,0 1,2 1,4 1,6
Wavelength [nm] Global combustor equivalence ratio
35
CH* Figure 5. Soot temperatures derived from the soot thermal
30
Flame: B2 continuum emission, and estimated mean flame
Relative intensity [-]

25 Fuel: SPK-1
Measured spectrum temperatures. Symbols denote type of fuel: ■ Jet A-1,
20 Planck's law ● SPK-1, ▲ SPK-2, □ Blend-1, ○ Blend-2, Δ Blend-3.
15 OH* C2* Black and red symbols identify measurement results at
8 psia and 6 psia inlet air pressure respectively.
10 C2* C *
CO2*
CH* 2 soot radiation
5 OH* C2* Estimated mean flame temperatures are also plotted in
0 Figure 5 for both inlet air pressures. The temperatures are
300 400 500 600 700 800 calculated with a RR in-house chemistry tool for Jet A-1
Wavelength [nm]
kerosene assuming 100% combustion efficiency. Therefore, the
Figure 4. Measured spectra of a Jet A-1 fueled flame (upper actual mean flame temperatures may be lower than the
graph) and a SPK-1 fueled flame (lower graph). calculated temperatures but sporadic hot spots may be found in
the flames if richer pockets of mixture are combusted.
The most remarkable difference between both flame
1,0
emission spectra is a distinguishable soot luminosity appearing
C2*/CH* chemiluminescence ratio

as thermal continuum emission superposed on the 0,8

chemiluminescence. This reflects one important conclusion
from the optical emission spectroscopy measurements. The 0,6
spectra give indication of the soot creation dependence on the
operating conditions and fuel. For instance, Jet A-1 shows 0,4

significantly stronger soot luminosity than all investigated SPK

0,2
fuels. Quantification was performed by introducing a soot
coefficient (not presented here). The known tendency that the 0
soot luminosity increases with increasing air pressure and/or 0 0,2 0,4 0,6 0,8 1,0 1,2 1,4 1,6

fuel-to-air ratio was also found. Global combustor equivalence ratio

Moreover, black-body thermal radiation curves according
to Planck’s law were iteratively fitted to the infrared region
between 625 nm and 850 nm for all measured spectra with
conspicuous soot radiation emissions, and the related black-
body thermodynamic temperatures (the soot particle
temperatures) were determined. The derived soot temperatures
are plotted in Figure 5. It was found, that the soot temperatures
are almost constant for all fuels and flames within the global
Figure 6. Dependence of the C2*/CH* chemiluminescence
ratio on the global combustor equivalence ratio. Symbols
denote type of fuel as indicated in the caption for Figure 5.
In addition, it was found that the CH*/OH*, C2*/OH* and
the C2*/CH* chemiluminescence ratios are not sensitive to the
global combustor equivalence ratio for all investigated fuels
and flames. The global combustor equivalence ratio is the ratio

5 Copyright © 20xx by ASME

intensity and the region of high soot luminous intensity are
clearly spatially separated in the average.
The volume-averaged OH* chemiluminescence intensity
shows a linear or at least a strict monotonic increasing
dependency on the air mass flow. The chemiluminescence
intensity divided by the fuel flow rate shows a monotonic
decreasing functional dependency on the global combustor
equivalence ratio. Both dependencies are not strongly
influenced by the fuel or air pressure. The OH*
chemiluminescence is strongest at high air mass flows and/or
low global combustor equivalence ratios.
The Abel inversion post-processing technique was applied
to identify the main reaction zones of the stabilized flame in an
axial plane. The flames have two main reaction zones both
attached to the injector, a central zone and a quite small outer
zone. The appearance of the central and/or outer zone and the
magnitude of the chemical activity in both zones are dependent
on the combustor operational parameter, but only slightly on
the fuels investigated here.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors would like to thank Darren Fyffe and Andrew
Payne from Rolls-Royce for the operation of the SARS test rig
as well as Allan Collard from Rolls-Royce for technical
assistance during the measurements. The financial support from
the Qatar Science & Technology Park Research Network
Program within the research project “In-depth Characterisation
of Synthetic GTL Jet Fuel Combustion Performance in Current
& Future Gas Turbine Engines” is gratefully acknowledged.
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9 Copyright © 20xx by ASME
 Flame
A1 A2 B1 B2
Fuel
Jet A-1

SPK-1

SPK-2

Blend-1

Blend-2

Blend-3

Figure 11. Dependence of the time-averaged OH* chemiluminescence distribution on the investigated fuels
for the four combustor operating conditions. Field-of-view is 135 x 103 mm.

11