Operation characteristics of a disk-type rotating detonation engine

Abstract

In the present work, operation characteristics of a disk-type rotating detonation engine (DRDE) with a constant chamber area were experimentally studied for various total mass flow rates and a wide variety of equivalence ratios of hydrogen–air mixtures. From the direct visualizations, the rotating detonation wave was found to propagate near the outer wall of the combustion chamber, regardless of the wave mode. For the present test conditions, single- and double-wave modes are observed, depending on the equivalence ratio of the mixture. The pressure gain was evaluated based on a one-dimensional flow model together with the chamber static pressure measured with the capillary tube average pressure technique. Although the present DRDE configuration provided a negative pressure gain for all the test conditions, it was found that the single-wave mode was superior to the double-wave mode in terms of the pressure gain.