Supersonic Combustion and Flame Stabilization of Coflow Ethylene and Air with Splitter Plate

A numerical investigation of supersonic combustion for ethylene and air coflow with a splitter plate is presented, mimicking the flame stabilization and combustion establishment in a dual-combustion ramjet engine. Emphasis is placed on the detailed flow and flame characteristics immediately downstream of the splitter plate and in the shock-wave/shear-layer interaction regions. Three different splitter-plate thicknesses, 2, 4, and 8 mm, are considered, to identify the significance of the geometric parameters. The analysis is based on the Favre-averaged conservation equations for compressible chemically reacting flows. Turbulence closure is achieved using Menter’s shear-stress transport model with a detached-eddy-simulation extension. Chemical reactions are modeled using a nine-species, ten-step laminar chemistry model with sufficient numerical resolution. Various mechanisms dictating the flame anchoring and spreading properties are examined. The hot stream from the ethylene preoxidization in the gas genera...