ALBERT

Description: Current investigations of the hydrogen-fueled supersonic combustion ramjet engine have delineated several technological problem areas. One area, the analysis of the injection, turbulent mixing, and combusiton of hydrogen, requires the accurate calculation of the supersonic combustion flow fields. This calculation has proven difficult because of an interesting phenomena which makes possible the transition from supersonic to subsonic flow in the combustion field, due to the temperature transitions which occur in the flow field. This computer program was developed to use viscous characteristics theory to analyze supersonic combustion flow fields with imbedded subsonic regions. Intended to be used as a practical design tool for two-dimensional and axisymmetric supersonic combustor development, this program has proven useful in the analysis of such problems as determining the flow field of a single underexpanded hydrogen jet, the internal flow of a gas sampling probe, the effects of fuel-injector strut shape, and the effects of changes in combustor configuration. Both combustion and diffusive effects can significantly alter the wave pattern in a supersonic field and generate significant pressure gradients in both the axial and radial directions. The induced pressure, in turn, substantially influences the ignition delay and reaction times as well as the velocity distribution. To accurately analyze the flow fields, the effects of finite rate chemistry, mixing, and wave propagation must be properly linked to one another. The viscous characteristics theory has been used in the past to describe flows that are purely supersonic; however, the interacting pressure effects in the combustor often allow for the development of shock waves and imbedded subsonic regions. Numerical investigation of these transonic situations has required the development of a new viscous characteristics procedure which is valid within the subsonic region and can be coupled with the standard viscous characteristics procedure in the supersonic region. The basic governing equations used are the 'viscous-inviscid' equations, similar to those employed in higher-order boundary layer analyses, with finite rate chemistry terms included. In addition, the Rankine-Hugoniot and Prandtl-Meyer relations are used to compute shock and expansion conditions. The program can handle up to 20 simultaneous shock waves. Chemistry terms are computed for a 7-species 8-mechanism hydrogen-air reaction scheme. The user input consists of a physical description of the combustor and flow determination parameters. Output includes detail flow parameter values at selected points within the flow field. This computer program is written in FORTRAN IV for batch execution and has been implemented on a CDC CYBER 175 with a central memory requirement of approximately 114K (octal) of 60 bit words. The program was developed in 1978.