Unsteady Simulation of Ignition of Turbulent Reactive Swirling Flow of Novel Design of Solid-Fuel Ramjet Motor

Abstract

This paper presents a numerical investigation of ignition and combustion stabilization of a novel design of a solid-fuel ramjet (SFRJ) motor with and without swirl flow. The proposed design includes two solid fuels, retaining the simple design of the classic SFRJ. Numerical simulations of unsteady, turbulent, reactive, and swirling flow coupled with solid-fuel pyrolysis have been performed using an in-house CFD solver. Experiments on SFRJ were conducted via a connected-pipe test facility to validate the developed code. Furthermore, the code was validated for chemical reactions, heat diffusion, and swirl flow by using benchmark test cases of shock-induced, semi-infinite plate, and dump combustor with swirl flow, respectively. Then, the proposed and classic designs were simulated for the same inflow conditions and configurations, and the results were analyzed and discussed. It is found that the mixing degree, reactant residence time, mass flux, ignition delay time, and regression rate improve when using the proposed design. Moreover, the proposed design reveals interesting observations of a new flame being created and merged with the main flame.

Keywords

• solid fuel
• ramjet
• CFD
• combustion characteristics
• propulsion