Combustion in a Transonic Flow with Large Axial and Transverse Pressure Gradients ∗

Thermal cycle analyses demonstrate that combustion in turbine passages of a gas turbine engine presents exciting new challenges and opportunities. Combustion in the stators and perhaps eventually in the rotors of the gas turbine engine is a new proposed strategy that can increase efficiency and thrust levels dramatically. The physical problem involves transonic, mixing, reacting flows with streamwise and transverse accelerations of the order 10 to 10g. Reacting mixing-layer flows and curved-channel flows with varying cross-sectional areas are studied by a computational code for solving the full compressible Navier-Stokes equations with multiple species and chemical reactions and a turbulence model. The code is used to study the flame structure in a transonic flow under the influence of large axial and transverse pressure gradients typical of conditions in a turbine passage. It is found that the transverse pressure gradient does not directly affect the steady-state flame structure significantly.