Experimental Investigation of a Flush-Walled, Diamond-Shaped Fuel Injector for High Mach Number Scramjets

Abstract

An experimental investigation of a flush-wall, diamond-shaped injector was conducted in the Virginia Tech supersonic wind tunnel. The diamond injector was elongated in the streamwise direction and is aimed downstream angled up at 60° from the wall. Test conditions involved sonic injection of helium heated to approximately 313 K into a nominal Mach 4.0 crossstream airflow. These conditions are typical of a scramjet engine for a Mach 10 flight, and heated helium was used to safely simulate hydrogen fuel. The injector was tested at two different injectant conditions. First, it was investigated at a baseline mass flow rate of 3.4 g/s corresponding to an effective radius of 3.54 mm and a jet-to-freestream momentum flux ratio of 1.04. Second, a lower mass flow rate of 1.5 g/s corresponding to an effective ratio of 2.35 mm and a jet-to-freestream momentum flux ratio of 0.49 was studied. The diamond injector was tested both aligned with the freestream and at a 15° yaw angle for the baseline mass flow rate and aligned with the freestream at the lower mass flow rate. For comparison, round injectors angled up at 30° from the wall were also examined at both flow rates. A smaller round injector was used at the lower mass flow rate such that the jet-to-freestream momentum flux ratio was 1.75 for both cases. A concentration sampling probe and gas analyzer were used to determine the local helium concentration, while Pitot, cone-static and total temperature probes were used to determine the flow properties.

The results of the investigation can be summarized as follows. For the baseline case, the aligned diamond injector penetrated 44% higher into the crossflow than did the round injector. The addition of yaw angle increased the crossflow penetration to 53% higher than the round injector. The aligned diamond injector produced a 34% wider jet than the round injector, while the addition of yaw angle somewhat reduced this widening effect to 26% wider than the round injector. The aligned and yawed diamond injectors exhibited 10% and 15% lower mixing efficiency than the round injector, respectively. The total pressure loss parameter of the aligned diamond was 22% lower than the round injector, while the addition of yaw angle improved the total pressure loss parameter to 34% lower than the round injector. For the lower mass flow (and momentum flux ratio) case, the diamond injector demonstrated 52% higher penetration and a 39% wider plume than the round injector. The mixing efficiency was nearly identical between the two injectors with just a 4% lower mixing efficiency for the diamond injector. The total pressure loss parameter of the diamond injector was 32% lower than round injector. These results confirm the conclusions of earlier, lower free stream Mach number and higher molecular weight injectant, studies that a slender diamond injector provides significant benefits for crossflow penetration and lower total pressure losses.