Abstract
A high frequency arc discharge plasma torch was specially designed for ignition enhancement in scramjet combustor. At first, the process of plasma injection into quiescent air was investigated experimentally through CCD camera and schlieren technology. Then, the energy property characterization of active particle distribution was measured by emission spectrometry. Several kinds of working gas under different injection pressures were compared. Finally, the typical supersonic flow-field structure with plasma cross-injection was obtained. The results show that plasma jet energy is concentrated near the jet axis, which has the maximum attenuation in the downstream as far as 2 cm from the outlet. The working gas and injection pressure have great effect on emission spectrometry and the process of jet expansion. The case with N2 under higher injection pressure shows better performance of energy exchanging process when comparing with air and argon. From the emission spectroscopy, we can see that plasma from nitrogen consists of nitrogen and oxygen atom mainly, whose intensity decreases with increasing distance from the nozzle, while it increases with the increase of pressure. When plasma was vertically injected into supersonic flow-field, bow shock wave and mixing layer structure were formed with thicken mixing layer, which helps enhance the mixing process between active particle and incoming air.
Highlights
In recent years, with the development of aerospace technology, hypersonic engine technology has become a hot topic around the world [1]
How to cite this paper: Zhong, W.L., Xi, W.X., Duan, L.W., Xu, Q.Y. and Li, Q. (2015) Experimental Investigation on the Plasma Torch Used for Scramjet Ignition Enhancement
There are many researches indicating that plasma ignition and combustion has many advantages such as: rapid heating flow, generation of active particles, achievement of large area ignition, shorten the ignition delay time, increasement of the rate of flame propagation, improvement of flame stability, broaden flammable limits, which makes it becomes the focus of extensive research countries [4]-[10]
Summary
With the development of aerospace technology, hypersonic engine technology has become a hot topic around the world [1]. There are many researches indicating that plasma ignition and combustion has many advantages such as: rapid heating flow, generation of active particles, achievement of large area ignition, shorten the ignition delay time, increasement of the rate of flame propagation, improvement of flame stability, broaden flammable limits, which makes it becomes the focus of extensive research countries [4]-[10]. The research area on the plasma ignition and combustion contains two aspects: numerical simulation and experimental verification, which shows that the active particles in the discharge gas products have big influence on the ignition and flame propagation property. The goal of this paper is to study the ignition characteristics of the plasma ignition system experimentally, including analyzing plasma jet energy distribution property, measuring spectral characteristics of the igniter at the outlet by emission spectroscopy, and obtaining the typical supersonic flow-field structure with plasma cross-injection
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