Acoustic excitation of liquid fuel droplets and coaxial jets.

摘要

This experimental study focuses on two important problems relevant to acoustic coupling with condensed phase transport processes, with special relevance to liquid rocket engine and airbreathing engine combustion instabilities. The first part of this dissertation describes droplet combustion characteristics of various fuels during exposure to external acoustical perturbations. Methanol, ethanol, a liquid synthetic fuel derived from coal gasification via the Fischer-Tropsch process, and a blend of aviation fuel and the synthetic fuel are used. During acoustic excitation, the droplet is situated at or near a pressure node condition, where the droplet experiences the largest velocity perturbations, and at or near a pressure antinode condition, where the droplet is exposed to minimal velocity fluctuations. For unforced conditions, the values of the droplet burning rate constant K of the different fuels are consistent with data in the literature. The location of the droplet with respect to a pressure node or antinode also has a measurable effect on droplet burning rates, which are different for different fuels and in some cases are as high as 28% above the unforced burning rate value. Estimates of flame extinction due to acoustic forcing for different fuels are also obtained.;The second part of this work consists of an experimental study on coaxial jet behavior under non-reactive, cryogenic conditions, with direct applications to flow mixing and unstable behavior characterization in liquid rocket engines. These experiments, conducted with nitrogen, span a range of outer to inner jet momentum flux ratios from 0.013 to 23, and explore subcritical, nearcritical and supercritical pressure conditions, with and without acoustic excitation, for two injector geometries. Acoustic forcing at 3 kHz is utilized to maximize the pressure fluctuations within the chamber acting on the jet, reaching maximum values of 4% of the mean chamber pressure. The effect of the magnitude and phase of the acoustic field generated within the chamber on the dark core length and the inner jet spreading angles is presented and the stability of coaxial flows in the current flow regime is discussed with respect to evidence for convective and absolute jet instabilities under different operating conditions.