Numerical investigation of low-frequency instability and frequency shifting in a scramjet combustor

The combustion instability in a laboratory-scale direct-connect hydrogen-fueled scramjet combustor is investigated numerically. The numerical simulation has been carried out using a delayed detached eddy simulation (DDES) with a detailed reaction mechanism. The computational framework has high fidelity by applying multi-dimensional high order accurate schemes for handling convective and viscous fluxes. The field data were accumulated up to 100 milliseconds on each case to capture sufficiently the repetitive behavior of low-frequency instability of order of 100 Hz. The numerical results exhibit the formation/dissipation of pressure and shock wave induced by continuous heat release in the combustor. This motion of pressure/shock wave, so-called upstream-traveling shock wave, presents repeated dynamics between isolator and combustor with a period of several milliseconds. With this periodic hydrodynamic characteristic, the upstream-traveling shock wave interacts with the boundary layer and injected fuel stream affecting fuel/air mixing and burning, and finally inducing the combustion instability in a scramjet combustor. Frequency analysis derived major instability frequencies of 190 Hz and 450 Hz in the isolator and combustor for low and high equivalence ratios, respectively. Current numerical results present the underlying flow physics on the shifting of the instability frequency by changing the equivalence ratio observed by the previous experimental studies. The fact that an instability frequency exists homogeneously from isolator to combustor informs that the combustion instability of scramjet engine is the fully coupled flow/combustion dynamics throughout the engine on a macroscopic scale.