Combustion characteristics of gaseous inverse O2/H2 coaxial jet flames in a single-element model combustor

Abstract

To effectively design hydrogen (H2)/oxygen (O2) liquid rocket engines through understanding the combustion characteristics of H2/O2 bipropellants, fundamental studies for the bipropellants in different phases are needed. This study is focused on the combustion characteristics of inverse gaseous O2/H2 coaxial jet flames in a single-element model combustor as a preliminary step for succeeding studies of injection at different phases in the combustor, visualizing flame structure by direct imaging, OH∗ chemiluminescence and OH planar laser-induced fluorescence. With increasing Reynolds number (Re), the frequency of occurrence of the local flame extinction increases and the length of the disconnected OH reaction zone is extended. The OH layer thickness increases downstream, while it is almost constant where the local flame extinction occurs and decreases with increasing Re due to the enhanced strain and scalar-dissipation rates. The excessive flame wrinkledness increases the local flame strain rate and results in the local flame extinction, exhibiting the tendency of increasing and then decreasing flame surface density with increasing Re. The probability density function of OH intensity quantifies the fluctuation intensity of OH radicals and the possibility of the local flame extinction. A useful database is provided for modeling the combustion of H2/O2 bipropellants under different phases.