Numerical Simulation of Shock Wave Interaction Effects on Supersonic Mixing Layer Growth

Abstract

This work is motivated by the need of the development of improved numerical tools to investigate the flow field in a supersonic combustion ramjet engine. For the application of supersonics combustion in air breathing propulsion systems the mixing process is a major problem. The injected fuel has to be mixed with air before reaction takes place. Several experiments show a decrease of the spreading rate of a supersonic mixing layer with increasing convective Mach numer. Aim of this work is to investigate the influence of shock/mixing layer interactions on the mixing process by means of computational fluid dynamics. Experiments carried out at the DLR Space Propulsion Institute predict an enhancement of the mixing layer growth due to shock waves.