Quasi-CJ rotating detonation with partially premixed methane-oxygen injection: Numerical simulation and experimental validation

The efficiency gain of rotating detonation depends on several loss factors related to the chamber geometry, the injection principle, the propellants and their mass flow rates, and the equivalence ratio. Numerical simulation can help quantify these losses, and this work presents a Large Eddy Simulation (LES) of rotating detonation in an annular chamber and its validation against experiments. The simulation captured the mixing processes, the overall dynamics of the detonation, the deflagration, and the burnt gas expansion. The injection device was numerically designed to ensure partial premixing of the propellants before injection into the chamber. The chamber had a length of 110 mm, an outer diameter of 80 mm, and a radial width of 10 mm. The mixture consisted of gaseous CH${}_4$ and O${}_2$ with an equivalence ratio of 1.2 and a mass flow rate of 160 g/s. Combustion kinetics was modeled using a skeletal mechanism with 62 reactions and 16 species. The boundary conditions were adiabatic slip walls. The results reproduce well the detonation velocity (within 1% deviation) and the pressure variation behind the wave. The simulated OH* chemiluminescence compares well with experimental high-speed imaging of the outlet and side of the chamber. The simulation results indicate that 65% of the propellant mass is well mixed in front of the wave whereas 15% of the mixture is burned by deflagration. They show that CH${}_4$ and O${}_2$ do not axially stratify because they have similar injection dynamics between periodic perturbations induced by the rotating detonation. Good propellant mixing and low deflagration losses explain the high experimental detonation velocity, about 90% of $D_{\text{CJ}}$, and a high combustion efficiency of 98%. These agreements between the computational and experimental results indicate that the simulation is capable of capturing the physical scales relevant to RDC operation and producing reliable results for RDC design.