Study on flow and reaction characteristics in a swirling water ramjet

A swirling-style propellant water ramjet model, which was established on the base of a particular model of column-style propellant water ramjet, was employed to numerically simulate the influence on engine performance at difference inlet velocities. The three-dimensional geometrical model was established by unigraphics (UG) software, and then the Fluent software was selected to simulate the temperature field and the turbulent flow field. Turbulent flow simulation was performed by the standard k-epsilon two equation functions, and combustion reaction was calculated by finite-rate/eddy-dissipation model. The computed results show that the swirl vanes can produce stream-wise vortexes and span-wise vortexes, resulting in a better mixing effect and flame stability. With the increase of inlet speeds, the temperature in the combustor decreases, while the specific impulse increases firstly and then declines.