Vortex dynamics studies in supersonic flow: Merging of co-rotating streamwise vortices

Abstract

For air-breathing propulsion systems intended for flight at very high Mach numbers, combustion is carried out at supersonic velocities and the process is mixing limited. Substantial increase in mixing rates can be obtained by fuel injection strategies centered on generating selected modes of supersonic, streamwise vortex interactions. Despite the recognized importance, and potential of the role of streamwise vortices for supersonic mixing enhancement, only few fundamental studies on their dynamics and interactions have been conducted, leaving the field largely unexplored. A reduced order model that allows the dynamics of complex, interacting, supersonic vortical structures to be investigated, is presented in this work. The prediction of the evolution of mutually interacting streamwise vortices represents an enabling element for the initiation of an effective, systematic experimental study of selected cases of interest, and is an important step toward the design of new fuel injection strategies for supersonic combustors. The case presented in this work is centered on a merging process of co-rotating vortices, and the subsequent evolution of a system composed of two counter-rotating vortex pairs. This interaction was studied, initially, with the proposed model, and was chosen for the peculiarity of the resulting morphology of the vorticity field. These results were used to design an experimental investigation with the intent to target the same specific complex flow physics. The experiment revealed the same peculiar features encountered in the simulation.