An experimental study is reported on the isothermal flow fields in a model solid-propellant ducted rocket combustor with two opposing side inlets. The measurements were made by using a four-beam two-color laser-Doppler velocimeter (LDV). Three values of momentum ratio (Ma/Ms) of the axial- to side-inlet jet—0.025, 0.11, and 1.28—were selected to investigate their effects on the flow characteristics. The Reynolds number, based on the air density, combustor height, and bulk velocity, was 4.56 × 104. The flow field was characterized in terms of the mean-velocity vectors and contours, joint probability functions, mean reattachment lengths, spreading rate of the axial-jet width, and Reynolds stress and turbulence kinetic energy contours. The LDV measured mean reattachment lengths were found to well agree with the corresponding flow-visualization photograph. In addition, the three Ma/Ms values provided three characteristic flows which are useful in testing the computational models. Further, correlations between the present cold-flow and previous reading-flow studies were documented in detail. It was found that from the fluid dynamic point of view Ma/Ms = 0.11 was preferable to the other two values of Ma/Ms.

Issue Section:
Research Papers
Topics:
Combustion chambers, Turbulence, Flow (Dynamics), Density, Flow visualization, Fluids, Kinetic energy, Lasers, Momentum, Probability, Propellants, Reynolds number, Rockets, Stress, Testing, Velocimeters
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Copyright © 1993
 by The American Society of Mechanical Engineers
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