AFTERBURNERS 73
has the effect of reducing the acceleration of the flow over the wake and
hence of reducing the velocity of the flow past the wakes of the other
holders. Thus, a partial blowoff can occur, leaving the remaining holders in
a more stable configuration.
When the holders are spaced irregularly in either lateral dimension, or
fore and aft, prediction of the wake geometry from the results of tests on
isolated flameholders is no longer possible. However, these modeling ideas
are still useful in a qualitative way. For example, it is expected that, if
flameholders are not arranged in a plane, the disturbance produced by the
flow over the downstream flameholders will pinch off the circulation zone of
the upstream holder unless the spacing along the duct axis is greater than
the recirculation zone length. Similarly, the burning wake of the upstream
holder will increase the effective blockage of the downstream holders and
hence reduce their stability limits.
(4) Reynolds number and Mach number effects. When the Reynolds
number is so low that the mixing layers in the wake of the flameholder
become laminar or transitional, the transport processes in the wake change
drastically. Molecular diffusion becomes important and the rule of thumb
for L~ W is no longer applicable.
Measurements made in systems with low approach stream turbulence
levels 6 have shown that the transition Reynolds number for circular cylin-
der flameholders is in the range 1-4 × 104. This result is for flameholders
cooled to approach stream temperature and the Reynolds number is based
on upstream flow properties, R e = plVld/l~ 1. When the flameholder is
allowed to reach temperatures hotter than the approach stream, those gas
properties based on the holder temperatures should be used. Some effects of
the geometrical shape of the holder on transition is expected.
Transition occurs when the separated flameholder boundary layers be-
come turbulent very close to the separation point and upstream of the
location in the mixing zone where the mixing effects or combustion can heat
the gas in the separated layers. Any heating will increase the kinematic
viscosity (which is roughly proportional to the temperatures to the 1.75
power) and reduce the effective Reynolds number. When the flow in the
separated boundary layers remains laminar up to the point of appreciable
heat addition, it remains laminar throughout the whole recirculation zone
and region of flame spread. The development of a turbulent boundary layer
on the ftameholder upstream of separation and high levels of the approach
stream turbulence will also insure that the mixing zone will be turbulent.
Transition to turbulence in the wake of a circular cylinder used as a
flameholder is shown in Fig. 2.13. The schlieren photographs are taken
along a line of sight looking down on the plane containing the undisturbed
velocity vector and the flameholder axis. At the lowest Reynolds number
(Fig. 2.13a), large-scale vortices are present, which appear as vertical lines in
the left picture. However, at the highest Reynolds number, these regular
features are hidden by small-scale disturbances assumed to be evidence of
turbulent flow. The Reynolds numbers examined here differ by a factor of
less than two and the change in the appearance is quite striking.
74 AIRCRAFT ENGINE COMPONENTS
SCHLIEREN SENSITIVE TO SCHLIEREN SENSITIVE TO VERTI-
HORIZONTAL DENSITY GRADI- CAL DENSITY GRADIENTS
ENTS
a) Reynolds number 2.45 × 104
.... ................ :, .............. ....
b) Reynolds number 3.35 x l0 4
2 I .... ; --7-"-"
r*
::
c) Reynolds number 4.60 x l0 4
Fig. 2.13 Transition to turbulence in recirculation zone of cooled circular cylinder.
Because the Reynolds number is directly proportional to the pressure
level in the engine (through the density dependence), the Reynolds number
will decrease as the altitude increases. Hence, the Reynolds number should
be evaluated at high altitudes to insure that the transition to laminar flow
described here does not occur.
When appreciable heat is to be added in a burner with a constant
cross-sectional area, inlet Mach numbers of about 0.15-0.25 must be used
to prevent choking due to heat addition. Thus, compressibility effects
usually are not important near the flameholder and recirculation zone.
However, note that the near-optimum one-half wake width (for the
two-dimensional case), the flow area is reduced by a factor of two. This
results in sonic speed past the recirculation zone for approach stream Mach
numbers as low as M 1 -- 0.3. Measurements made by Wright 7 bear out this
prediction and further show that the W / H correlation discussed above fails
when the Mach number past the recirculation zone M 2 is greater than 0.8.
AFTERBURNERS 75
(5) Freestream turbulence. The effects of freestream turbulence can be
described only in a qualitative manner. As the intensity of turbulence
increases, the recirculation zone shortens. However, the stabilization crite-
rion in its most direct form, Vz/rJL = 1, remains valid even when the
recirculation zone length is reduced by factors of two. Thus, turbulence
appears to effect the rate of the spread of the mixing layers without
changing the mechanism of stabilization.
Chemical parameters. The dependence of ~, on chemical parameters is
very strong and unfortunately much less well understood than the influence
of the fluid dynamic parameters. Hence, the chief use of the scaling scheme
discussed here is to predict the effect of changes in the fluid dynamic
parameters for fixed chemical parameters. However, it is still interesting to
list the important chemical parameters and to indicate the nature of their
effects. The principal parameters are: fuel properties, fuel-air mixture ratio,
0.6 0.8 1.0 1.2 1.4 L6 IJB 2JO
11,, EOUIVALENCE RATIO
Fig. 2.14 Variation of characteristic ignition time ~c with equivalence ratio.
76 AIRCRAFT ENGINE COMPONENTS
0.60
0.55
0.50
O.45
~o.4o
--~ 0 . 3 5
w
I--
o
t~
-i- 0 . 3 0
0,25
0.20 --
0.15
0.2 O.5 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 O.8 0.9 I,O
, F U E L - AIR RATIO, FRACTION OF STOICHIOMETRIC
Fig. 2.15 Effect of fuel properties on characteristic time (parameter is mass fraction
of hydrogen in the fuel).
approach stream temperature and oxygen concentration, and approach
stream pressure.
The dependence of the critical time on fuel-air ratio and fuel type is
illustrated in Figs. 2.14 and 2.15. In both, % is plotted as a function of the
equivalence ratio (the fuel-air ratio divided by the stoichiometric fuel-air
ratio). In Fig. 2.14, values are presented for a hydrocarbon fuel vapor with a
molecular weight of about 100. A number of flameholder geometries were
used to obtain these data. In Fig. 2.15, a number of fuels were made up of
this hydrocarbon plus various mass fractions of hydrogen. The values of %
decrease dramatically as the fraction of hydrogen increases. Also note that
AFTERBURNERS 77
rc increases very rapidly for both high and low values of the equivalence
ratio.
The characteristic time is also a sensitive function of approach stream
temperature and oxygen concentration. In general, % decreases rapidly as
the temperatures increase, even when this increase is due to vitiation (i.e.,
preburning at a fuel-air ratio below stoichiometric). However, for a given
temperature, ~'c increases as the oxygen mass fraction decreases due to
increasing vitiation.
The critical time increases as pressure decreases roughly as % cc 1 / P for
h y d r o c a r b o n fuels of high molecular weight (e.g., see Ref. 11). A similar
result was obtained in small-scale experiments carried out with hydrogen.
In attempting to obtain an independent estimate of values of "rc or some
other experimentally determined quantity proportional to %, the depen-
dence of a time based on the ratio of the laminar flame thickness 6 to
laminar flame speed S has been examined. In the single case for which
comparable data were available, values of ~/S% for methane were com-
puted for stoichiometric fuel-air ratio of one and approach stream tempera-
ture between 300 and 400 K. The ratio had a value close to one for the
whole range of temperatures examined. Similarly, values of the ratios of
~,/S and % for hydrocarbon and hydrogen fuels are about 10. Thus, 8 / S
m a y be a useful predictor for the dependence of Tc on various chemical
parameters.
Finally, there is a persistent attempt to relate the characteristic stabiliza-
tion time to a thermal ignition time (e.g., Ref. 12) or a global reaction rate
(e.g., Refs. 13 and 14). These efforts often lead to a representation for ~-
similar to the reciprocal of a reaction rate
,rc ~ Tmp-ne+(n/nT/)/dp
where m and n are numbers of the order of one or two, A an activation
energy determined empirically, R the universal gas constant, T/ an ignition
temperature or the gas temperature in the recirculation zone, and q~ an
equivalence ratio of less than 1, which is the stoichiometric value. In the
works of Solokhin and Mironenko 13'14 where a more complex expression is
used, the effective values of the parameters are
n = 1, m = 2.5, A / R = 2 × 10 4 K
Although the dependence on temperature and pressure by this approach is
plausible, the use of global reaction rates and the application of this
approach to processes involving chemical reactions in turbulent mixing
regions does not have a sound physical basis and should be viewed as a
sophisticated form of curve fitting.
Because of the lack of understanding of the chemical parameters, the
stabilization criterion is useful only when % values have been determined
for the range of chemical parameters expected in practice. However, small-
scale experiments can be used to make the required determinations and
some physical feel is given by the flame speed correlation suggested above.
