Effect of wavy wall strut fuel injector on shock wave development and mixing enhancement of fuel and air for a scramjet combustor

Abstract

Abstract The shear mixing and streamline vortices are the notable parameters to influence the air–fuel mixing in hypersonic flows. The shock wave development and Mach number significantly influence the shear mixing phenomenon. Hence, this research introduced an unconventional strut and tested its performance for the generation of shock waves at different flow conditions (M = 2,4,6). The Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations are solved to evaluate the performance of the new strut. Both the DLR scramjet strut injector and wavy wall strut injector are assessed for the shear mixing development. Turbulence for the association of shock waves, mixing layer, and the boundary layer has been modeled with the SST k-ω model. The variation in shock development and its interactions are investigated further with an increase in Mach number. The scramjet flow structure differentiation found the increased number of oblique shock waves with the wavy wall strut fuel injector. It increases the turbulence level with increased streamline vortices, turbulent intensity, and turbulent kinetic energy. The shock wave generation analysis at different Mach numbers (M = 2,4,6) found fewer interactions between the shock wave and shear layer with increased Mach number. From the examination of shock wave generation and its interaction with the shear layer and analysis of turbulent parameters, it is found that the wavy wall strut has an appreciable effect on shock-induced blend augmentation of fuel and air.