METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR THE CONTROL OF FLUID DYNAMIC MIXING IN PULSE COMBUSTORS

摘要

In a method and apparatus for controlling combustion characteristics in a pulse combustor (20), the mixing characteristics of the combustion reactants and the combustion products are controlled as a function of the inlet geometry (22) of the inlet of the combustion chamber. The inlet geometry (22) may be fixed or variable for controlling the mixing characteristics. A feedback loop (44, 48) may be employed to sense actual combustion characteristics, and then vary the inlet geometry (22) to obtain the desired mixing characteristics necessary to achieve the desired combustion characteristics. In a preferred embodiment, the mixing time of the combustion reactants and products scales with the ratio of the inlet orifice radius to the injection velocity. Various embodiments relate to the varying of the mass flow rate of reactants while holding the radius/velocity ratio constant.