The process of shock-induced ignition has been investigated both computa- tionally and experimentally, with particular emphasis on the concept of radical farming. The first component of the investigation contained Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) calculations of an ignition delay study, a 2D pre-mixed flow over flat plate at a constant angle to the freestream, and through a generic 2D scramjet model. The focal point of the investigation however examined the complex 3D flow through a generic scramjet model. Five experimental test conditions were ex- amined over flow enthalpies from 3.4 MJ/kg to 6.4 MJ/kg. All test conditions simulated flight at 21000 metres ([symbol=almost equal to] 70000 ft), while the equivalent flight Mach number varied from approximately 8.5 at the lowest enthalpy, to approximately Mach 12 at the highest enthalpy condition. The presence of H2 fuel injected in the intake caused a separated region to form on the lower surface of the model at the entrance to the combustor. A fraction of the total mass of fuel was entrained in this separated region, providing long residence times, hence increased time for the chemical reactions that lead to ignition to occur. In addition, extremely high temperatures were found to exist between each fuel jet. Both fuel and air are present in these regions, therefore the chance of ignition in these regions is high. Streamlines passing through the recirculation zone ignited within this zone, while streamlines passing between the fuel jets ignited soon after entry into the combustor. The first instance of a pressure rise from combustion was observed on the centreline of the model where the reflected bow shock around the fuel jets crossed the centreline of the combus- tor. Upstream of this location the static pressure of the flow was too low for the chemical reactions that release heat to occur. The comparison between the experimental and computational results was lim- ited due to inaccuracies in modelling the thermal state of the gas in the CFD calculations. The gas was modelled as being in a state of thermal equilibrium at all times, which incorrectly models the freestream flow from the nozzle of the shock tunnel, and also the flow downstream of oblique shock wave within the scramjet model. As a result combustion occurs sooner in the CFD calculations than in the experimental result.

The process of shock-induced ignition has been investigated both computa- tionally and experimentally, with particular emphasis on the concept of radical farming. The first component of the investigation contained Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) calculations of an ignition delay study, a 2D pre-mixed flow over flat plate at a constant angle to the freestream, and through a generic 2D scramjet model. The focal point of the investigation however examined the complex 3D flow through a generic scramjet model. Five experimental test conditions were ex- amined over flow enthalpies from 3.4 MJ/kg to 6.4 MJ/kg. All test conditions simulated flight at 21000 metres ([symbol=almost equal to] 70000 ft), while the equivalent flight Mach number varied from approximately 8.5 at the lowest enthalpy, to approximately Mach 12 at the highest enthalpy condition. The presence of H2 fuel injected in the intake caused a separated region to form on the lower surface of the model at the entrance to the combustor. A fraction of the total mass of fuel was entrained in this separated region, providing long residence times, hence increased time for the chemical reactions that lead to ignition to occur. In addition, extremely high temperatures were found to exist between each fuel jet. Both fuel and air are present in these regions, therefore the chance of ignition in these regions is high. Streamlines passing through the recirculation zone ignited within this zone, while streamlines passing between the fuel jets ignited soon after entry into the combustor. The first instance of a pressure rise from combustion was observed on the centreline of the model where the reflected bow shock around the fuel jets crossed the centreline of the combus- tor. Upstream of this location the static pressure of the flow was too low for the chemical reactions that release heat to occur. The comparison between the experimental and computational results was lim- ited due to inaccuracies in modelling the thermal state of the gas in the CFD calculations. The gas was modelled as being in a state of thermal equilibrium at all times, which incorrectly models the freestream flow from the nozzle of the shock tunnel, and also the flow downstream of oblique shock wave within the scramjet model. As a result combustion occurs sooner in the CFD calculations than in the experimental result.

This study investigates the stress wave force balance technique for the measurement of forces on a fuelled hypersonic flight vehicle in an impulse-type test facility. A three component force balance for the measurement of lift, thrust and pitching moment on a supersonic combustion ramjet engine was designed, built, calibrated and tested. The force balance was designed using finite element analysis and consisted of four stress bars instrumented for the measurement of strain. Relative errors of less than 2% were obtained for the recovered simulated calibration loads, while errors of less than 3% were obtained for lift and thrust components for simulated fuel-on and fuel-off force loading distributions. Tests in a calibration rig showed that the balance was capable of recovering the magnitude of point loads to within 3% and their lines of action to within 1% of the chord of the model. Additional errors result when testing in a wind tunnel. The uncertainties for the experiments with fuel injection are estimated at 9%, 7% and 9% for the coefficients of lift, thrust and pitching moment. The scramjet vehicle was 0.566m long and weighed approximately 6kg. It consisted of an inlet, combustion chamber and thrust surface. Fuel could be injected through a series of injectors located on the scramjet inlet. The scramjet model was set at zero angle of attack. Experiments were performed in the T4 Free Piston Shock Tunnel at a total enthalpy of 3.3MJ/kg, a nozzle supply pressure of 32MPa and a Mach number of 6.6, with equivalence ratios up to 1.4. Fuel-off force coefficients were measured to within 2% of theoretical values based on predictions using CFD and hypersonic theory. The fuel-off centre-of-pressure was measured to within 4% of the predicted value. The force coefficients varied linearly with equivalence ratio. Good comparison of the measured lift and thrust forces with theoretical values was obtained with increasing flow rates of fuel. The lift-to-drag ratio increased from 3.0 at the fuel-off condition to 17.2 at an equivalence ratio of 1.0. Poor agreement between the measured pitching moment and theoretical values was obtained due to difficulties in predicting the pressure distribution with heat addition on the latter parts of the thrust surface. A shift in the centre-of-pressure of approximately 10% of model chord was measured as the equivalence ratio varied from 0.0 to 1.0. For the design tested, the thrust produced was not enough to overcome drag on the vehicle, even at the highest equivalence ratio tested. Tests at higher stagnation enthalpies (up to 4.9MJ/kg) showed the lift and pitching moment coefficients remained constant with an equivalence ratio of 0.8 but the thrust coefficient decreased exponentially with increasing stagnation enthalpies. Good agreement of experimental values of lift and thrust force with predicted values was obtained for equivalence ratios of 0.0 and 0.8. Choking occurred at stagnation enthalpies of less than 3.0MJ/kg and a nozzle supply pressure of 32MPa with fuel injection at an equivalence ratio of approximately 0.8, resulting in a drag force of approximately 2.5 times the fuel-off drag force. Tests at a nozzle supply enthalpy of 3.3MJ/kg and nozzle supply pressures of 32, 26 and 16MPa were performed at equivalence ratios of 0.0 and 0.8. The fuel-off lift coefficient remained constant but the thrust coefficient increased. This is attributed to a reduction in skin friction associated with longer lengths of laminar boundary layers as the Reynolds number was decreased. The measured fuel-off lift and thrust coefficients agreed with the predicted values to within the known test flow and force prediction uncertainties. Combustion did not occur at a nozzle supply pressure of 16MPa. This work has demonstrated that overall scramjet vehicle performance measurements (such as lift-to-drag ratio and shifts in centre-of-pressure) can be made in a free piston shock tunnel.

This work evaluates the capabilities of the RANS and LES techniques for the simulation of high speed reacting flows. These methods are used to gain further insight into the physics encountered and regimes present in supersonic combustion. The target application of this research is the scramjet engine, a propulsion system of great promise for efficient hypersonic flight. In order to conduct this work a new highly parallelised code, PULSAR, is developed. PULSAR is capable of simulating complex chemistry combustion in highly compressible flows, based on a second order upwind method to provide a monotonic solution in the presence of high gradient physics. Through the simulation of a non-reacting supersonic coaxial helium jet the RANS method is shown to be sensitive to constants involved in the modelling process. The LES technique is more computationally demanding but is shown to be much less sensitive to these model parameters. Nevertheless, LES results are shown to be sensitive to the nature of turbulence at the inflow; however this information can be experimentally obtained. The SCHOLAR test case is used to validate the reacting aspects of PULSAR. Comparing RANS results from laminar chemistry and assumed PDF combustion model simulations, the influence of turbulence-chemistry interactions in supersonic combustion is shown to be small. In the presence of reactions, the RANS results are sensitive to inflow turbulence, due to its influence on mixing. From complex chemistry simulations the combustion behaviour is evaluated to sit between the flamelet and distributed reaction regimes. LES results allow an evaluation of the physics involved, with a pair of coherent vortices identified as the dominant influence on mixing for the oblique wall fuel injection method. It is shown that inflow turbulence has a significant impact on the behaviour of these vortices and hence it is vital for turbulence intensities and length scales to be measured by experimentalists, in order for accurate simulations to be possible.

After the end of the NASA space shuttle programme, there has been resurgence of interest in developing a single stage-to-orbit spacecraft. The key technology to realize this dream is the airbreathing scramjet engine. The scramjet concept has been around for decades, but much work is still needed in order to eliminate the remaining obstacles to develop a practical working prototype of the engine. Many such obstacles are related to the inlet which functions as the main compression unit for the engine. Typically, a high speed inlet is designed to function properly in a single flight condition. Such an inlet would experience adverse flow conditions related to various shock-shock interactions, viscous effects, shock-boundary layer interactions, and many other flow phenomena at off-design conditions. The traditional mechanism to mitigate the adverse flow conditions is by varying the inlet geometry at off-design conditions. There are still gaps in understanding the behaviour of inlets at off-design conditions and the effectiveness of variable geometry as inlet flow control. This is partly due to complex flow diagnostics setup, which limits the type, quantity and quality of information that can be extracted from the inlet flow. The first objective of this thesis was to develop a global inlet measurement system that can provide an abundance of information on inlet flow. The pressure sensitive paint method was employed together with other methods to provide comprehensive understanding on inlet flow characteristics. Calculation of Mach number at the isolator exit using the isolator sidewall pressure map was successfully demonstrated. The measurement of Mach number at the isolator exit has allowed for performance of the inlet to be calculated without the need for intrusive flow diagnostics tools used by previous researchers. The global measurement system was then employed to investigate the characteristics of the scramjet inlet operating at various off-design conditions. Complex shock structures were observed at the inlet cowl entrance as the angle-of-attack was increased. The relationship of flow quality and inlet performance was examined and discussed. General improvements on the inlet performance were obtained if the size of separation on the compression ramp was reduced. The inlet was also observed to perform poorly when compression shocks impinged on the inner cowl surface. Cowl deflections were demonstrated to be effective in controlling the internal flow of the inlet and improving its performance. An exploratory study on the role of micro-vortex generators to control boundary layer separation on scramjet inlets has been included as well. Strategies for optimizing an inlet at off-design conditions were analysed, and it was found that any variable geometry combination must maintain high throat-to-freestream Mach number ratio in order to preserve high inlet performance.

Le travail de cette thèse est consacré à la simulation aux grandes échelles (LES) et à la modélisationde la combustion supersonique, dont l’application est rencontrée dans les moteurs detype scramjet. Dans ce contexte, une étude LES appliquée au cas d’une flamme supersoniquehydrogène-air (flamme de Cheng) a été effectuée sur trois niveaux de raffinements de maillage.Les résultats en termes de profils moyens et fluctuations de composition et de température sontconfrontés aux mesures expérimentales, et l’impact du raffinement de maillage est établi. Parailleurs, à partir des données issues de cette étude LES, une modélisation de la combustionturbulente dans un milieu fortement compressible est proposée sur la base d’une approche tabuléede la chimie. Une analyse temporelle des interactions choc/flamme a ensuite été menée,permettant de mettre en évidence la présence de structures transitoires ayant une influence surles processus de stabilisation de la flamme. / This PhD study is focused on the large eddy simulation (LES) and on the modelisation of supersonic combustion as encountered in scramjet types engines. In this context, a LES study was performed for an hydrogen-air supersonic flame (Cheng’s flame) with three mesh refinement levels. The results obtained for mean and fluctuations of composition and temperature are compared to experimental measurements, and the impact of the grid resolution is established. Moreover, a modelisation of turbulent combustion in highly compressible flows is proposed based of tabulated chemistry approach. An analysis of the dynamics of shock/flame interaction was then conducted, and the presence of transient structures, which impact the flame stabilisation processes, was emphasized.

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