Numerical Investigation of the Effect of Sudden Expansion Ratio of Solid Fuel Ramjet Combustor with Swirling Turbulent Reacting Flow

Weixuan Li, Xiong Chen, Wenxiang Cai and Omer Musa
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Weixuan Li: Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China
Xiong Chen: Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China
Wenxiang Cai: Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China
Omer Musa: Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Nanjing 210094, China

Energies, 2019, vol. 12, issue 9, 1-29

Abstract: In this paper, the effect of sudden expansion ratio of solid fuel ramjet (SFRJ) combustor is numerically investigated with swirl flow. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code is written in FORTRAN to simulate the combustion and flow patterns in the combustion chamber. The connected-pipe facility is used to perform the experiment with swirl, and high-density Polyethylene (HDPE) is used as the solid fuel. The investigation is performed with different sudden expansion ratios, in which the port and inlet diameters are independently varied. The results indicated that the self-sustained combustion of the SFRJ occurs around the reattachment point at first, and then the heat released in reattachment point is used to achieve the self-sustained combustion in the redevelopment zone. The average regression rate is proportional to the sudden expansion ratio for the cases with a fixed port diameter, which is mainly dominated by the enhancement of heat transfer in backward-facing step. However, the average regression rate is inversely proportional to the sudden expansion ratio for the cases with fixed inlet diameter, which is influenced by the heat transfer mechanism of developed turbulent flow in the redevelopment zone.

Keywords: solid fuel ramjet; swirl flow; sudden expansion ratio; combustion characteristics; heat transfer coefficient; regression rate (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

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