22nd Congress of International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences, Harrogate, UK, 28 August - 1st September, 2000
Paper ICAS 2000-7.3.4

WAVE ROTOR GASDYNAMICS FOR AN AEROPROPULSION SYSTEM

K. Okamoto
School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Japan

Keywords: wave rotor, shock waves, unsteady flows

Wave rotors are expected to have a potential of improving drastically the performance of an aeropropulsion system. However, there are some problems in the operation at off-design conditions, because of its working principle that is not conventional. Furthermore, the gas dynamic states inside of the cells are very complicated even at the design point, because shock and rarefaction waves are reflected and interact with the contact discontinuity. It is therefore very important to investigate the inner flow of the wave rotor. One of the objectives in this study is to visualize this inner flow both experimentally and by numerical approach. In the experiments, optical image processing was utilized to support the instantaneous wall static pressure measurements, whilst, in the computations, an attempt was made to clarify the details of wave-coupled fluid motion based upon 2D Navier-Stokes equations. In addition, “gradual opening effects” on the inner flow are also investigated by changing the width of the cell. The results of computations and experiments were in good agreement in terms of the intensity and the propagating velocity of the shock waves generated in the cells. As for the gradual opening effects, the greater influence was observed on the contact discontinuity than on the shock waves.

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