Theoretical Analysis of Turbulent Mixing of Reactive Gases With Application to Supersonic Combustion of Hydrogen

Abstract

The turbulent mixing of an axisymmetric jet of a reactive gas is considered. By assuming a convenient model for the compressible eddy viscosity, the momentum equation is reduced to a form amenable to approximate solution. The resulting velocity distribution in both incompressible and compressible flows is in reasonable agreement with experiment. The usual assumptions with respect to chemical behavior, namely either frozen or equilibrium flow, and to unity Lewis numbers and Prandtl number are employed. The theoretical results for chemical equilibrium are shown to be in reasonable agreement with experimental data from low speed hydrogen flames. A numerical example of interest in connection with a hypersonic, air breathing vehicle is carried out in detail.