Prediction of Two-Phase Flowfield in Ram Combustors

The basic mixing phenomena in a ram combustor are investigated through implementation of an adequate physical model and adoption of a numerical procedure for the solution of the equations representing the flowfield. The proposed physical model is able to predict the flowfield of particle-laden, chemically inert, confined, coaxial turbulent flows. The particulate phase is treated as a continuum that is in dynamic and thermal nonequilibrium with the host fluid. The resulting set of Eulerian conservation equations are numerically solved by means of a modified version of the TEACH-T computer code, which has shown satisfactory convergence characteristics for the cases investigated. Two numerical simulations are performed. The first one, representing low-speed cold flow of confined jets, is the counterpart of an experimental study for the verification of the physical model and its numerical solution. The second simulation adopts the assessed operating conditions of a ram combustor in sustained flight at sea level. Profiles of primitive flow variables obtained from the simulations display a good quantitative agreement with the experimental results in the first case and indicate the mixing performance of a relatively simple ram combustor geometry in the second case.