Development of a Premixed Combustion Capability for Dual-Mode Scramjet Experiments

Hypersonic air-breathing engines rely on scramjet combustion processes, which involve high-speed, compressible, and highly turbulent reacting flows. The combustion environment and the turbulent flames at the heart of these engines are difficult to simulate and study in the laboratory under well controlled conditions. Typically, wind-tunnel testing is performed that more closely approximates engine development rather than a careful investigation of the underlying physics that drives the combustion process. The experiments described in this paper, along with companion data sets, aim to isolate the chemical kinetic effects and turbulence-chemistry interaction from the fuel-air mixing process in a dual-mode scramjet combustion environment. A unique fuel injection approach is adopted that produces a uniform fuel-air mixture at the entrance to the combustor and results in premixed combustion. This approach relies on the mixing enhancement of a precombustion shock train upstream of the dual-mode scramjet's combustor. For the first time a stable flame, anchored on a cavity flameholder, is reported for a scramjet combustor operating in premixed fuel-air mode. The new experimental capability has enabled numerous companion studies involving advanced diagnostics such as coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS), particle image velocimetry (PIV), and planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF).