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. The second part of this work consists of an experimental study on coaxial jet behavior with direct applications to flow mixing and unstable behavior characterization in liquid rocket engines. The experiments 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.