Effects of Flow Compressibility on Two-Phase Mixing in Supersonic Droplet-Laden Flows

Abstract

This research addresses a numerical analysis on the effects of flow compressibility on the characteristics of droplet dispersion, evaporation, and mixing of fuel and air according to the simulation of the spatially developing supersonic shear flows laden with evaporating n-decane droplets. A sixth-order hybrid WENO numerical scheme is employed for capturing the unsteady wave structures. The influence of inflow convective Mach number (Mc), representing the high-speed flow compressibility, on the two-phase mixing is analyzed, in which Mc is specified from 0.4 to 1.0. It is found that the shearing vortex is compressed spatially as Mc increases, associated with the alternate distributions of compression and expansion regimes in the flow field. The flow compressibility changes not only the vortex structures but also the aerothermal parameters of the shear flows, and further influences the dispersion and evaporation of droplets. The two-phase mixing efficiency is observed to decrease as Mc increases.