Experimental study on flow excursion instability of supercritical hydrocarbon fuel in scramjet regenerative cooling parallel channels

Flow instability of supercritical hydrocarbon fuel is a crucial issue in scramjet regenerative cooling structure. In this study, flow excursion instability and flow distribution in parallel tubes were experimentally studied for supercritical fluids. Two types of flow excursion occur in a single tube. Type I and Type II excursions, and they are corresponding to decreasing and increasing flow rate respectively. They can trigger flow maldistribution between parallel tubes and the hysteresis phenomenon of flow distribution. The effects of system parameters, including inlet temperature, system pressure, and heat flux, on flow distribution were analyzed. In addition, the relationship between flow excursion and the pseudo-critical interval proposed in the literature was established according to the heated tube outlet temperature at the onset of flow instability. Finally, the flow excursion instability boundary was obtained using two dimensionless parameters. These experimental results can provide helpful insight on the mechanism of Scramjet regenerative cooling.