LES study of flame stabilization in DLR hydrogen supersonic combustor with strut injection

Abstract

Supersonic combustion in the hydrogen fueled DLR model scramjet combustor was computationally investigated by using Large Eddy Simulation (LES) combined with the latest detailed reaction mechanism for hydrogen combustion. Two computational models were employed including a two-dimensional reduced model and a three-dimensional model with periodicity in the spanwise direction. The two-dimensional model was fully validated against the three-dimensional model and the experimental data for the wall pressure measurements and the axial velocity under non-reacting flow condition. For reacting flow, the present model shows good agreement with the experimental axial velocity and static temperature measurements. Furthermore, radical evolution and heat release analysis were conducted both qualitatively and quantitatively to reveal the flame stabilization mechanism in the DLR combustor. The results show that the combustion is characterized by a three-stage combustion mode, namely induction, radical transportation and intense turbulent combustion stages.