Perspectives in Science (2016) 8, 222224

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journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/pisc

Computational simulation of multi-strut

central lobed injection of hydrogen in a
scramjet combustor
Gautam Choubey , K.M. Pandey, Deepak Sharma,
Ajoy Debbarma

Department of Mechanical Engineering, National Institute of Technology Silchar, Assam, India

Received 29 January 2016; received in revised form 26 March 2016; accepted 9 April 2016
Available online 21 May 2016

KEYWORDS Summary Multi-strut injection is an approach to increase the overall performance of Scramjet
while reducing the risk of thermal choking in a supersonic combustor. Hence computational
CFD;
simulation of Scramjet combustor at Mach 2.5 through multiple central lobed struts (three
Scramjet;
struts) have been presented and discussed in the present research article. The geometry and
Combustion
model used here is slight modication of the DLR (German Aerospace Center) scramjet model.
efciency;
Present results show that the presence of three struts injector improves the performance of
Supersonic
scramjet combustor as compared to single strut injector. The combustion efciency is also found
combustion
to be highest in case of three strut fuel injection system. In order to validate the results, the
numerical data for single strut injection is compared with experimental result which is taken
from the literature.
2016 Published by Elsevier GmbH. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Introduction to strengthen remarkably the payload in comparison to con-

The scramjet engine is a favourable propulsion system for
hypersonic ight and a feasible way to minimize costs for
approaching to space. Scramjet operated vehicles are able
This article belongs to the special issue on Engineering and
Material Sciences.
Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 9508361030.
E-mail addresses: gautam dadaa@yahoo.com (G. Choubey),
kmpandey2001@yahoo.com (K.M. Pandey), deep.cool.u@gmail.com
(D. Sharma), ajoy@debbarma.me (A. Debbarma).
ventional rockets (Cecere et al., 2011; Lu et al., 2012). The
progress of scramjet propulsion systems includes computa-
tional simulations as well as experiments in order to attain
a better understanding of the complicated ow phenomena
happening inside the engine. It is widely known that exper-
iments are rather high-priced and call for high technical
efforts, in particular if actual ight checks are carried out.
Therefore, numerical simulations are the nice rst tech-
nique within the layout process (Pandey and Sivasakthivel,
2011).
The objective of the present work is to perform numer-
ically the combustion phenomena in scramjet for different

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pisc.2016.04.032
2213-0209/ 2016 Published by Elsevier GmbH. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/
licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Computational simulation of multi-strut central lobed injection of hydrogen 223

Figure 1 (a) Schematic diagram of DLR supersonic combus-

tion chamber (Oevermann, 2000). (b) Two schematic diagrams Figure 2 Wall pressure distributions for single-strut experi-
of central lobed shaped three struts scramjet combustor. (c) 2D mentally and with CFD simulations.
triangular grid generations around 3 struts.

design conditions by modifying the DLR scramjet model. The Mathematical and numerical modelling
presence of central lobed shaped multi-strut injectors and
its impact on the performance of scramjet combustor as Steady 2D simulations are done to nd out the ow eld and
compared to single strut injector is discussed in this paper. turbulent mixing behaviour of H2 /Air in three strut injector
The generation of shocks by central lobed multiple struts conguration by using Ansys Fluent 14 code (ANSYS, 2011).
and its effect on combustion efciency is also reported The turbulence model selected here is shear stress transport
(SST) with two equations k model whereas the combina-
tion of eddy dissipation and nite rate chemistry models
Flow modelling and simulation are used as combustion model. In this present work, single
step reaction model was also used which was based on the
ICEM-CFD (ANSYS, 2011) is used to generate the 2 D model assumption that completion of a chemical reaction occurred
and mesh whereas Ansys 14 Fluent software (ANSYS, 2011) is in single step. Hydrogen-water reaction was main reaction
used to complete the computational analysis. For multi-strut which was used in the present scramjet conguration.
supersonic injection setup, three struts are utilized for fuel Transport equations for the SST k model
injection and ame holding as appeared in Fig. 1(b). Here
fuel is injected parallel to the air stream through three struts
 
k
with central lobed channel. For Strut with Central lobed (kui ) = k + Gk Y k + S k (1)
xi xj xj
injectors, 2D, unstructured triangular grids are generated.
This is appeared in Fig. 1(c) beneath. For the purpose of  
validation for single strut (Fig. 1(a)) only we use the similar k
(kui ) = k + Gk Y k + S k (2)
boundary condition as used by Oevermann (2000). xi xj xj

Figure 3 CFD predicted shock waves interactions for (a) single strut and (b) multi-strut central lobed injection by using contour
plots of Mach number. (c) CFD predicted temperature contour using single strut and (d) three strut of Scramjet combustor.
224
Figure 4 (a) Wall pressure distributions and (b) combustion efciency for single strut as well as three-strut injection.
Results and discussions
Here we describe the results from the numerical simula-
tions for strut with alternating central lobed-shaped injector
where all simulations are started with the state of incom-
ing air. Fig. 2 demonstrates the test and numerical pressure
calculations along the combustor walls for single strut com-
bustor. Because of the development of driving edge shock
wave which is reected from the top and base walls, there
is sudden rise in pressure.
In case of Mach no contour in three strut injections in
Fig. 3(b), we can see that eddies and vortex are formed in
the area near the combustor and reected shock portion in
order to enhance the turbulent H2 /air mixing efciency. In
case of H2 injection oblique shocks are formed at the tip of
the central lobed strut which is reected by the upper walls
of the combustor and strikes the wake down the channel
because of the diverging section of the combustor forming a
symmetrical shape along the combustion chamber. The ow
behind the strut accelerates towards the centre line of the
combustor. Due to these reected shock waves from the wall
of the combustor, wall temperature increases which is then
followed by the formation of subsonic recirculation zone at
the base of the central lobed which will help in stabiliz-
ing the ame during combustion process. From temperature
contour plot in Fig. 3(d) it is clear that the combustion
and heat release occurs in the recirculation area following
the central lobed injector (Pandey and Sivasakthivel, 2011)
and maximum temperature is found to be 2950 K. For three
strut conguration, addition of heat is taking place in the
divergent portion of the combustor and the ow is not ther-
mally choked for this equivalence ratio i.e. = 1. This is due
to the presence of 3 divergence angle on the upper wall
which increases the area to refrain from inlet inconstancies.
The static pressure variation in the combustor for different
geometries is shown in Fig. 4(a). The highest pressure peak
at the top wall is found at X 205 mm with corresponding
pressure p 300 kPa for three struts injection system.
Combustion efciency (c ) is the term which is mainly
used to measure the performance of combustor (Gerlinger
et al., 2008). The combustion efciency plot for three strut
G. Choubey et al.
conguration is shown in Fig. 4(b). The plot starts right after
the trailing edge of the circular strut injector (x 109 mm)
In present case the highest combustion efciency is observed
for three struts injection system (approx. 92%) as compared
to single strut injection (65%) system.
Conclusions
Numerical simulations of a hydrogen-fuelled scramjet com-
bustor with multi-strut injection was presented. It is
witnessed that computational results agree reasonably well
qualitatively and quantitatively with experiments in case of
single strut injection. The multi-strut injection conguration
showed a better performance in comparison to the single-
strut injection. The multi-strut injection gives the possibility
to increase the amount of injected hydrogen and, thus, to
enhance combustion. It was also observed that maximum
temperature occurred in the recirculation areas for three
struts approx. 2950 K and combustion efciency is found to
be highest (approx. 93%) in case of three strut fuel injection
system as compared to single strut injection
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