INVESTIGATION OF CRYOGENIC PROPELLANT FLAMES USING COMPUTERIZED-TOMOGRAPHY OF EMISSION IMAGES

Cryogenic propellant combustion is investigated in this paper. It is s hown that the mean flame structure may be obtained by applying compute rized tomography principles to oxygen-hydrogen (OH) emission images ob tained from experiments on a shear coaxial injector. The data correspo nd to injection conditions typical of those found in rocket motors, bu t to lower operating pressures of 1, 5, and 10 bar. The transformed em ission images yield the mean volumetric OH emission distribution. This quantity may be roughly interpreted as the mean volumetric rate of re action. The data provide the location of the mean flame zone and confi rm that stabilization takes place in the immediate vicinity of the inj ection plane.