Investigation of Vaporized Kerosene Injection and Combustion in a Supersonic Model Combustor

Authors: X. Fan, G. Yu, J. G. Li, X. Y. Zhang, and C. J. Sung

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Abstract:

Injection and combustion of vaporized kerosene was experimentally investigated in aMach 2.5 model combustor at various fuel temperatures and injection pressures. A unique kerosene heating and delivery system, which can prepare heated kerosene up to 820 K at a pressure of 5.5 MPa with negligible fuel coking, was developed. A three-species surrogate was employed to simulate the thermophysical properties of kerosene. The calculated
thermophysical properties of surrogate provided insight into the fuel flow control in experiments. Kerosene jet structures at various preheat temperatures injecting into both quiescent environment and a Mach 2.5 crossflowwere characterized. It was shown that the use of vaporized kerosene injection holds the potential of enhancing fuelair mixing and promoting overall burning. Supersonic combustion tests further confirmed the preceding conjecture by comparing the combustor performances of supercritical kerosene with those of liquid kerosene and effervescent atomization with hydrogen barbotage. Under the similar flow conditions and overall kerosene equivalence ratios, experimental results illustrated that the combustion efficiency of supercritical kerosene increased approximately 10–15% over that of liquid kerosene, which was comparable to that of effervescent atomization.

Citation: X. Fan, G. Yu, J. G. Li, X. Y. Zhang, and C. J. Sung, “Investigation of Vaporized Kerosene Injection and Combustion in a Supersonic Model Combustor,” Journal of Propulsion and Power 22 (1), 103-110 (2006).