Investigation Of Flow Characteristics Of Scramjet Isolator

The isolator which is placed between the inlet and the combustor is a key component of the scramjet engine. The isolator includes two important functions: One is to provide a wide work scope to inlet, Another is to make scramjet engine work within the dual-mode. The phenomenon of supersonic flow in isolator has been of great interest for decades due to both the complexity in aerodynamics and its wide engineering application.An investigation of flow characteristics in the isolator was studied in the thesis. The commercial CFD software FLUENT was used to carry on the 2D and 3D numerical simulations of the internal flow field of isolator. The investigation of flow characteristics in the isolator contributes to further understanding the flow field and the design of the isolator. According to the related research, the internal flow field in isolator was analyzed in detail and a design method of the isolator was presented. Experiments conducted by Billig and Carroll were used as the test case. Aspects relating to turbulence model, mesh, numerical scheme and geometric model were studied. Comparisons are made of wall pressure distribution, centerline pressure distribution and Mach number contours. Results obtained in the present study show very good agreement with the experimental data. The flow field properties of various flow parameters and geometric parameters of isolator were computationally evaluated in the thesis. The effects of the parameters including back pressure, Mach number, boundary layer thickness, Reynolds number, L/H, divergence angle, scaling and aspect ratio were discussed.