| Fuel flow around the stagnation plate in a pulse combustor. A burning cycle drives a resonant pressure wave, which in turn enhances the rate of combustion, resulting in a self- sustaining, large-scale oscillation. The figure shows the injection phase when the pressure in the combustion chamber is low. Fuel enters the chamber, hits the stagnation plate and becomes entrained by a vortex ring formed by flow separation at the edge of the splash plate. Researchers are developing computational models to study the interplay of vortex dynamics and chemical kinetics and will use their results to improve pulse combustor design. |