Investigation of Vaporized Kerosene Injection in a Supersonic Model Combustor

This paper report our preliminary results of characterizing the jet structures of kerosene injection into quiescent atmosphere and a Mach 2.5 crossflow at various preheat temperature. A heating system has been designed and tested that can prepare heated kerosene of 0.8 kg up to 670 K at a pressure of 5.5 ㎫. Temperature measurement near the injector shows that the temperature of pressurized kerosene can be kept constant during the experimental duration. Comparison of kerosene jet structures in the preheat temperature range of 290-550 K demonstrates that with injection pressure of 4 ㎫ the jet plume turns into vapor phase completely at injection temperature of 550 K, while keeping the penetration depth essentially unchanged. The results suggest that the injection of vaporized fuel would improve the performance of a liquid hydrocarbon-fueled supersonic combustor because the evaporation process is now omitted.