Effect of jet schemes of the double-nozzle strut injector on mixing efficiency of air and hydrogen for a scramjet combustor

Abstract

This work presents the numerical analysis of the DLR scramjet combustor for different jet schemes of the double-nozzle injector, namely the various injection directions, injection angles, and nozzle spacings. After comparing various jet schemes, it is found that the optimal jet scheme for the double-nozzle strut is to set the angle of 60° for the inward injection direction and the nozzle spacing of 3 mm. Furthermore, the mixing efficiency of the optimal jet scheme is investigated at different Mach numbers. The current research focuses on the mixing mechanism of air and hydrogen by analyzing the flow structures in the strut's wake region. It is observed that the double-nozzle configuration increases the number of vortexes behind the strut and creates a recirculation zone between the two jet streams. The mixing efficiency of the scramjet combustor improves significantly with an increase in the injection angle, but the spacing and direction of the double-nozzle have little effect on the mixing efficiency. It is found that the additional total pressure loss generated by the double-nozzle configuration can be negligible. In addition, the results show that the mixing efficiency of the optimal jet scheme for the double-nozzle is improved more significantly at low Mach numbers (e.g., Ma = 2 and 3).