Experimental Study of Shock-train/Combustion Coupling and Flame Dynamics in a Heated Supersonic Flow

Isolator/combustor interactions are measured in a direct-connect dual-mode ramjet-scramjet experiment. An operating point approach is used to create a mapping of the coupling effects between the isolator geometry, inlet flow conditions and fuel injector behavior. The resulting isolator/injector coupling map provides a description of the response of the isolator to particular injector performance, and the effective blockage it induces on the isolator flow. Existing models and correlations predicting the pressure rise across a pseudo-shock, and its resultant length, were evaluated through comparison with measurements made in a heated-flow isolator duct that is coupled to a hydrogen-air combustor. The observation of a normal-to-oblique shock-train transition mechanism has lead to the development of a revised shock-train operating regime description that takes into account the impact of Mach number and maximum pressure recovery on the shock configurations present in the isolator.;The behavior of a ram-scram transition was examined along with pressure measurements and high-speed laser interferometry. The work quantifies the sudden change in the wall static pressure profile and flame position that occurs as the downstream boundary condition abruptly changes when the flow becomes unchoked. Transition was studied in three ways; as a quasi-steady phenomenon, or as caused by rapid variations in either fuel flow-rate or test-section wall temperature. A regime diagram was measured that plots the ram-scram transition boundary. Under certain conditions some periodic low-frequency oscillations of the flame position occur and they are shown to be correlated with oscillations of the upstream pre-combustion pseudo-shock. A self-sustaining shear-layer instability, associated with the flameholding cavity, is identified as the mechanism perpetuating this behavior. The relevant time scales associated with the ram-scram transition and the flame-shock interactions are discussed.