Studies of strut-cavity flameholder performance in scramjet combustor with hydrocarbon fuel

In order to improve the combustion efficiency of strut/cavity configurations in scramjet, numerical simulation was performed to study the reacting flow field of four different strut/cavity configurations, especially the effects of the combustor configurations on the kerosene combustion performance and the mass exchange rate of cavity. The numerical results show that the strut with rear wedge not only improves the mass exchange rate between the mainstream and cavity, but also creates a larger low-speed recirculation zone and combustion area downstream the strut. These factors increase the combustion efficiency of kerosene by 2.8%~5.8%. Although the application of dual-cavity cannot improve the mass exchange rate between the mainstream and cavity, it increases the low speed recirculation zone and combustion area, and increases the combustion efficiency by 4.5%~8.8%. Under the same inflow conditions, the total pressure recovery is similar in different strut/cavity configurations, and decreases with the stream Mach number increasing.