Implication of injection angle and jet-to-cross flow ratio on the combustion characteristics of a scramjet combustor

Abstract

The present work deals with the implication of injection angle and jet-to-cross flow ratio on the combustor performance of a cavity-based scramjet combustor. Unsteady, two-dimensional compressible flow through the scramjet combustor is considered to comprehend the effects of Mach number (Ma), jet-to-cross flow ratio ( $P_j/P_{\mathrm{\infty }}$ ) and injection angle (α) on the combustion characteristics. Results are presented for the following range of parameters: 2.0 ≤ Ma ≤ 2.7; 15° ≤ α ≤ 60° and 0.5 ≤  $P_j/P_{\mathrm{\infty }}$  ≤ 1.2. Intense recirculation zone is observed at θ = 45° irrespective of inlet Mach number which are quintessential for proper mixing. Further, the size of the recirculation zone is the largest when jet-to-cross flow ratio is equal to 0.8 acting as a precursor for enhanced mixing performance. Moreover, static pressure reaches an optimum value at injection angle of 45° beyond which further increase would result in thermal choking. Our study reveals that mixing is improved with an increase in Mach number (Ma). It is observed that the size of the recirculation zone is strongly dependent on the jet-to-cross flow pressure ratio along with the injection angle. To put it in a nutshell, the injection angle of 45° along with a jet-to-cross flow pressure ratio of 0.8 is conducive the optimal performance in scramjet combustor.