Feedback Combustion Control Using Chemi-Ionization Probe in Supersonic Flow of Combustion Products

DOI: 10.2514/1.43809 The results of the present work demonstrate feasibility of feedback combustion control using a chemi-ionization current sensor placed in a supersonic flow of combustion products. Operated in the saturation regime, the ionization sensor (Thomson probe) removes nearly all electrons from the flow and therefore acts as a global chemi-ionization detector. The results show that a relation between the equivalence ratio in the combustor and the chemi-ionization current in the M 3 flow can be used to maintain the equivalence ratio at the desired value. The experiments have shown that using different target values of the chemi-ionization current in the feedback control program enforces transition from near-stoichiometric to fuel-lean and from fuel-lean to near-stoichiometric conditions in the combustor. The experiments have also demonstrated that the feedback control system can counter external perturbations, which either increase or decrease the equivalence ratio in the combustor and bring the fuel–oxidizer mixture composition back to the specified values. The combustion feedback control system based on a Thomson chemi-ionization probe is simple and straightforward and can be easily adapted for practical applications.

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