Combustion Enhancement for Liquid Fueled Side Inlet Ducted Ramrocket

A study on mixing and combustion enhancement of liquid fueled side inlet ducted ramrocket combustors by adding air flow swirl capability to remove hot spots and to enhance the fuel/air mixing is proposed. Both experimental and computational approaches will be undertaken to study the flow swirl effects on combustion for designing more efficient ramrocket combustors. The design of flow swirlers as well as air inlet angles, will be the central parameters for performance testing. The goal is to achieve better fuel/air mixing, less pressure loss, larger net thrust, and more stable flames. Full scale experiments will be tested in the test cell 18, Building 18C, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base under nonreacting and reacting flow conditions. Advanced 3-D computational simulations will be developed as a parallel study with the experiments to provide more economic and efficient guidelines for combustor designs. Liquid fuel atomization and spray combustion are also planned to be studied. The knowledge will be useful for designing injector geometry and its mounting location of liquid fueled ramrockets and other liquid fueled combustors.