DEVELOPMENT OF AN EXPERIMENTALLY FLEXIBLE FACILITY FOR MIXING-COMBUSTION INTERACTIONS IN SUPERSONIC-FLOW

A new experimental facility has been designed, built and calibrated to support research topics involving supersonic mixing and combustion an d will be used to investigate: 1) molecular level mixing; 2) mixing-co mbustion coupling effects for gaseous and liquid fuels; and 3) atomiza tion, droplet break-up, mixing, and combustion of high-energy/high-den sity slurry fields in a supersonic airstream. The facility simulates f light enthalpies corresponding to altitudes between 26 and 36 km and f light Mach numbers up to 4.75. The major features of this facility are the geometric flexibility of the test section configuration, of the f uel injection, and of the experimental conditions, enabling the invest igation of a broad range of topics. Parallel and transverse injection, independently controlled in four regions, is available. The construct ion of the test section is modular and the entrance Mach numbers can b e varied between 1.6 and 3.6. Art experimental program to define the t est flow at the entrance of the facility's test section is presented w ith emphasis on the test section entrance temperature distribution fin d calibration. Selected research topics currently being investigated a re summarized to highlight the usefulness of the present facility.