Investigations of Three-dimensional Flow Characteristics in a Liquid Ramjet Combustor Using the PIV Method

Article type: Research Article

Authors: Sohn, C.H. | Yang, G.S. | Kim, G.N. | Moon, S.Y. | Lee, C.W.

Affiliations: Department of Mechanical Engineering, Kyungpook National University, 1370 Sankyuk-dong Puk-gu, Taegu 702-701, Korea. e-mail: chsohn@knu.ac.kr

Abstract: Three-dimensional flow characteristics in a liquid fuel ramjet combustor were investigated using the PIV method. The combustor had two rectangular inlets that form a 90-degree angle with each other, with intake angles of 30 degrees. Three guide vanes were installed in each rectangular inlet to improve flow stability. The experiments were performed in a water tunnel test with the same Reynolds number as Mach 0.3 at the inlet. PIV software was developed to measure the characteristics of the flow field in the combustor. Accuracy of the developed PIV program was verified with a rotating disk experiment and standard data. The experimental results showed that the two main streams from the rectangular intakes collided near the plane of symmetry and generated two large longitudinal vortices, which was in agreement with three dimensional computational results. A large and complex three-dimensional recirculating flow was measured behind the intakes.

Keywords: ramjet, combustor, PIV, vortex, recirculation

Journal: Journal of Visualization, vol. 5, no. 1, pp. 59-65, 2002