Effect of the incident shock wave interacting with transversal jet flow on the mixing and combustion

The interaction between an incident shock wave and a transverse jet flow for mixing and combustion in a supersonic airstream was investigated experimentally and numerically. NO planar laser induced fluorescence (NO-PLIF) and particle imaging velocimetry (PIV) for non-reactive flows and three-dimensional reactive/non-reactive numerical simulations were conducted to examine the effect of the incident shock wave on the three-dimensional flow structure and mixing mechanism between the airstream and the injected gas downstream of the injection slot. Results of NO-PLIF measurement and numerical simulation showed that, in the case without the incident shock wave, injected gas is seldom seen in the recirculation zone just downstream of the injection slot, while the injected gas with higher concentration is almost uniformly distributed in the recirculation zone when the incident shock wave is introduced downstream of the injection slot. Moreover, it was shown by the numerical simulations that the profiles of the local equivalence ratio is in the combustible range due to the enhanced entrainment of the airstream when the incident shock wave is introduced downstream of the injection slot. A large-scale recirculation in the direction parallel to the wall is generated by the three-dimensional flow effects, which enhances the mixing and extends the residence time in the recirculation zone in the case with incident shock wave downstream of the injection slot, the recirculation flow being confirmed successfully by PIV measurements as well. The results of three-dimensional reactive numerical simulations were in good agreement with the experimental flame-holding characteristics at a lower total temperature, which showed that flame-holding can be attained only when the incident shock wave was introduced downstream of the injection slot, confirming that the formation of three-dimensional and large-scale recirculation flow downstream of the injection slot enlarges the recirculation zone and enhances the mixing to produce the conditions for robust flame-holding. (C) 2010 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.