Experimental studies of pylon-aided fuel injection into a supersonic crossflow

An investigation of the nonreacting flow associated with pylon-aided gaseous fuel injection into a Mach 2 crossflow is described. In this study, a small pylon was positioned just upstream of a circular flush-wall fuel injector. Three pylon geometries were studied, along with a no-pylon reference case. In all cases, a typical cavity-based flameholder was positioned downstream of the fuel injector. The injectant plume characteristics were interrogated using a variety of laser-based and probe-based measurement techniques. Planar laser-induced fluorescence of nitric oxide was used to study the instantaneous plume structure. Spontaneous vibrational Raman scattering provided time-averaged plume characteristics and mixing information. Probe-based instrumentation was used in conjunction with the mixing data to estimate the total pressure losses associated with each configuration. Each pylon had a unique influence on the fuel-injection plume. In all cases, the presence of the pylon resulted in improved fuel penetration into the supersonic crossflow without significantly changing the total-pressure-loss characteristics. Mixing efficiencies of the pylon-aided injection cases were not substantially different from the reference case.