Combustion response to acoustic perturbation in liquid rocket engines

An experimental study of the effect of acoustic perturbations on combustion behavior of a model liquid propellant rocket engine has been carried out. A pair of compression drivers were used to excite transverse and longitudinal acoustic fields at strengths of up to 155.6 dB and 159.5 dB respectively in the combustion chamber of the experimental rocket engine. Propellant simulants were injected into the combustion chamber through a single element shear coaxial injector. Water and air were used in cold flow studies and ethanol and oxygen-enriched air were used as fuel and oxidizer in reacting hot flow studies.In cold flow studies an imposed transverse acoustic field had a more pronounced effect on the spray pattern than a longitudinal acoustic fields. A transverse acoustic field widened the spray by as much as 33% and the plane of impingement of the spray with chamber walls moved up closer to the injection plane. The behavior was strongly influenced by the gas phase velocity but was less sensitive to changes in the liquid phase velocity.In reacting hot flow studies the effects of changes in equivalence ratio, excitation amplitude, excitation frequency, liquid and gas phase velocity and chamber pressure on the response of the injector to imposed high frequency transverse acoustic excitation were measured. Reducing the equivalence ratio from 7.4 to 3.8 increased the chamber pressure response to the imposed excitation at 3000 Hz. Increasing the excitation amplitude from 147 dB to 155.6 dB at 3000 Hz increased the chamber pressure response to the excitation. In the frequency range of 1240 Hz to 3220 Hz, an excitation frequency of 3000 Hz resulted in the largest response of the chamber pressure indicating the importance of fluid dynamic coupling. Increasing the liquid phase velocity from 9.2 m/sec to 22.7 m/sec, did not change the amplitude of the chamber pressure response to excitation. This implied the importance of local equivalence ratio and not the overall equivalence ratio on chamber pressure response to excitation. Increasing the chamber pressure from 1.5 atm to 3.1 atm and gas phase velocity from 93.2 m/sec to 105.1 m/sec significantly increased the chamber pressure response to acoustic excitation. This emphasized the significance of the gas phase density and velocity. Measurements of the free radical C2 emission zone and Schlieren images indicated that transverse acoustic excitation moved the combustion zone closer to the injection plane and longitudinal acoustic excitation widened the combustion zone. The histogram of these images indicates that the area over which combustion takes place in the chamber increases under imposed acoustic excitation. This implied that more propellants combust prior to exiting from the exhaust nozzle under unsteady conditions. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)...