A study of premixed, shock-induced combustion with application to hypervelocity flight

Axdahl, Erik Lee

Title:

A study of premixed, shock-induced combustion with application to hypervelocity flight

dc.contributor.advisor	Wilhite, Alan W.
dc.contributor.author	Axdahl, Erik Lee
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Kumar, Ajay
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Lieuwen, Timothy
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Menon, Suresh
dc.contributor.committeeMember	Ruffin, Stephen
dc.contributor.department	Aerospace Engineering
dc.date.accessioned	2014-01-13T16:22:37Z
dc.date.available	2014-01-13T16:22:37Z
dc.date.created	2013-12
dc.date.issued	2013-11-19
dc.date.submitted	December 2013
dc.date.updated	2014-01-13T16:22:37Z
dc.description.abstract	One of the current goals of research in hypersonic, airbreathing propulsion is access to higher Mach numbers. A strong driver of this goal is the desire to integrate a scramjet engine into a transatmospheric vehicle airframe in order to improve performance to low Earth orbit (LEO) or the performance of a semi-global transport. An engine concept designed to access hypervelocity speeds in excess of Mach 10 is the shock-induced combustion ramjet (i.e. shcramjet). This dissertation presents numerical studies simulating the physics of a shcramjet vehicle traveling at hypervelocity speeds with the goal of understanding the physics of fuel injection, wall autoignition mitigation, and combustion instability in this flow regime. This research presents several unique contributions to the literature. First, different classes of injection are compared at the same flow conditions to evaluate their suitability for forebody injection. A novel comparison methodology is presented that allows for a technically defensible means of identifying outperforming concepts. Second, potential wall cooling schemes are identified and simulated in a parametric manner in order to identify promising autoignition mitigation methods. Finally, the presence of instabilities in the shock-induced combustion zone of the flowpath are assessed and the analysis of fundamental physics of blunt-body premixed, shock-induced combustion is accelerated through the reformulation of the Navier Stokes equations into a rapid analysis framework. The usefulness of such a framework for conducting parametric studies is demonstrated.
dc.description.degree	Ph.D.
dc.format.mimetype	application/pdf
dc.identifier.uri	http://hdl.handle.net/1853/50290
dc.language.iso	en_US
dc.publisher	Georgia Institute of Technology
dc.subject	PMSIC
dc.subject	Combustion
dc.subject	Hypervelocity
dc.subject	Hypersonic
dc.subject	Injection
dc.subject.lcsh	Hypersonic planes
dc.subject.lcsh	Aerodynamics, Hypersonic
dc.subject.lcsh	Combustion
dc.subject.lcsh	Mach number
dc.subject.lcsh	Aerodynamics
dc.subject.lcsh	Aerodynamics, Supersonic
dc.subject.lcsh	Airplanes Scramjet engines
dc.title	A study of premixed, shock-induced combustion with application to hypervelocity flight
dc.type	Text
dc.type.genre	Dissertation
dspace.entity.type	Publication
local.contributor.corporatename	College of Engineering
local.contributor.corporatename	Daniel Guggenheim School of Aerospace Engineering
local.relation.ispartofseries	Doctor of Philosophy with a Major in Aerospace Engineering
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication	7c022d60-21d5-497c-b552-95e489a06569
relation.isOrgUnitOfPublication	a348b767-ea7e-4789-af1f-1f1d5925fb65
relation.isSeriesOfPublication	f6a932db-1cde-43b5-bcab-bf573da55ed6
thesis.degree.level	Doctoral