Numerical Analysis of a Kerosene-Fueled Scramjet Combustor

Abstract

A kerosene-fueled scramjet combustor was numerically analyzed in order to meet the requirement of thrust for a hypersonic test vehicle. The internal configuration of the fuel injection struts and fuel injection was arrived through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) study. The combustor was tested in the hypersonic test facility at DRDL. Numerical simulations were carried out along with facility nozzle (from throat onward) both for nonreacting and reacting flow. Three-dimensional (3D) Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations are solved along with k–ε turbulence model. Single-step chemical reaction with Lagrangian particle tracking method (LPTM) is used for combustion of kerosene fuel. Fairly good match of the top wall pressure has been obtained with experimental data for both nonreacting and reacting flows. Effects of mass flow rate of incoming vitiated air and fuel flow have been studied numerically in details. Top wall pressure distributions have been found to decrease with the decrease of the mass flow rate of vitiated air. Significant drop of wall pressure, higher thrust per unit fuel flow, and combustion efficiency have been observed with the decrease of fuel flow.