Contribution of Unsteadiness to Solid Fuel Burning Characteristics in a Scramjet Combustor

Abstract

The contributions of unsteadiness to solid fuel combustion are investigated numerically and validated against new experiments in a deep cavity scramjet. Large-eddy simulations discretized with discontinuous Galerkin (DG) elements are solved with a flamelet manifold approach in three dimensions. A multiphase model that incorporated thermal decomposition inside the foam layer is coupled with stagnation flow flames to determine the combustion manifold and regression rate. The approach accurately models small-scale experiments of convective burning over solid fuel. The inclusion of the manifold into the DG code features two innovations: a polynomial fitting of the pressure to reduce the interpolation dimensions and the coefficient of determination to include non-monotonic manifolds in DG schemes. Model validation was performed using pressure and averaged regression rate data, both of which showed strong agreement with experiments. Three-dimensional pressure modes in the cavity support a substantial increase in regression rates and a broadening of the peak due to oscillations of the impingement point. The majority of fuel is pyrolyzed at the shear-layer reattachment point in a stagnation flow boundary layer. The fuel in the cavity is pyrolyzed by conductive heat transfer from the main shear layer. Poor combustion is observed in the expanding fuel section.