Discontinuous-Galerkin Simulations of Premixed Ethylene-Air Combustion in a Cavity Combustor

摘要

One of the primary challenges in design of a robust scramjet engine is minimizing combustor length, and consequently internal drag, while maintaining adequate residence time for mixing and complete combustion. The cavity flameholder increases residence time by inducing a recirculating flow suitable for sustained combustion in a scramjet engine. An additional benefit to this configuration is that the total pressure losses are low compared to that observed in other flameholders. Experiments at the University of Virginia Supersonic Combustion Facility have investigated combustion of premixed ethylene-air with a cavity flameholder. In this paper, the Naval Research Laboratory's high fidelity Discontinuous-Galerkin code, JENRE, is used to simulate combustion in this facility. The primary goal of this work is to use these simulations to enhance our understanding of fully premixed, dual-mode scramjet combustion with a hydrocarbon fuel. A secondary goal is to compare the experimental results with those of the simulation for the purpose of validating the high-order numerical solutions to the reactive Navier-Stokes equations.