Experimental Study on the Dynamic Characteristics of Gas-Centered Swirl Coaxial Injector under Varying Ambient Pressure

Abstract

To determine the dynamic characteristics of a gas-centered swirl coaxial injector under backpressure, an experimental system of dynamic injection in a backpressure chamber was constructed. Filtered water and nitrogen were used as simulant media for rocket propellants, which are typically used with this kind of injector. An inertial flow pulsator was manufactured to generate the pulsation of the flows that feed to the liquid injector. The electric conductance method was adopted to measure liquid film thickness. After the pulsation of incoming flow in the feedline was tested, and the operating conditions for the injector to start pulsating were validated, the effects of the chamber backpressure and the recess length of the injector on the dynamic characteristics of spray, such as liquid film thickness, breakup length, and amplitude of pulsation, have been investigated in detail. Experimental results demonstrated that the increase in chamber backpressure prompts the liquid sheet to rupture earlier with a shorter breakup length, which results from the increased density of the ambient gas. Chamber backpressure suppresses the pulsation of the outlet flow, especially for a longer recess length. Moreover, a decrease in the recess length results in a reduction in breakup length due to an intense gas–liquid shearing in a narrower recess section. For a lower backpressure, the amplitude of outlet flow generally increases when the recess length increases. However, this phenomenon is not obvious for the conditions of higher backpressure and lower pulsation frequency.