EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF THE INITIAL STAGE OF THE OPERATION PROCESS IN DETONATION ROCKET AND AIR-BREATHING ENGINES

Detonation propulsion, both rocket-type and air-breathing, is currently a topical direction of research worldwide. Attention is mainly paid to various modes of operation of such engines, their stability, and reliability. As for the issues related to the initiation of the detonation process in such engines, they are usually not considered in detail. However, the initial stage of development of the operation process can be accompanied by a signi¦cant increase in the pressure acting on engine structural elements [1]. In the transition from research to prototypes, issues related to the weight of such engines and their thrust-to-weight ratio will come to the fore. To ensure a minimum margin of safety in engine design, it is required to organize mild rather than strong initiation of operation process excluding the possibility of severe explosions of large volumes of fuel mixture inside the engine or in its close vicinity. This work dealt with experimental simulation of ignition, §ame acceleration, and de§agration-to-detonation transition (DDT) in a semicon¦ned layer of explosive mixture in a slot representing the unrolled annular combustor of a rotating detonation engine. The test mixture was represented by nonpremixed ethylene oxygen mixture of overall stoichiometric composition.