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Investigation into the effective injector area of a rotating detonation engine with impact of backflow

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Abstract

For rotating detonation engines, the high-pressure region behind the detonation causes backflow into the plenum, making it difficult to properly design injectors to achieve the target pressure balance due to blockage of a part of the injector area during engine operation. In this paper, we present the pressure and thrust measurement of a rotating detonation engine with two different triplet injectors (fuel injector diameters of 0.8 mm and 1.0 mm) using gaseous methane, gaseous ethylene, and gaseous oxygen. The detonation wave propagation velocity with the fuel injector diameter of 0.8 mm was approximately 200 m/s higher than that with the fuel injector diameter of 1.0 mm. Combustor pressures and specific impulses were almost identical for both fuel injector diameters in this study. For our evaluation of the extent to which the available injector area can be utilized during engine operation, the effective injector area ratio was defined as the ratio of the plenum pressure during burn time to the pre-ignition value. Regardless of fuel species and fuel injector orifice diameter, the effective injector area ratio decreased proportionally with the ratio of combustor pressure to pre-ignition plenum pressure. This result implies that the pressure balance between the upstream plenum pressure and the combustor pressure can be roughly determined taking the effect of backflow into consideration.

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Abbreviations

A :

Cross-sectional area

A ch :

Detonation channel area

A e :

Outer nozzle exit area

A inj :

Total injector area

A inj,ef :

Effective injector area

A p :

Inner plug nozzle exit area

A th :

Geometric throat area

C d :

Mass flow coefficient

C F,i :

Thrust coefficient

\(c^*_{\rm i}\) :

Characteristic exhaust velocity

d f :

Fuel injector diameter

d ox :

Oxidizer injector diameter

D e :

Outer nozzle exit diameter

D in :

Inner diameter

D p :

Inner plug nozzle diameter

F :

Thrust

h ef :

Effective injection height

h ex :

Excess injection height

h nul :

Null injection height

I sp :

Specific impulse

I sp,i :

Ideal specific impulse

M :

Mach number

\(\dot{m}\) :

Actual mass flow rate

\(\dot{m}\) i :

Ideal mass flow rate

N D :

The number of detonation waves

p :

Pressure

p b :

Back pressure

p c :

RDE combustor pressure

p e,i :

Pressure at nozzle exit

R :

Gas constant

R c :

Center radius of combustor channel

T ple :

Plenum temperature

t :

Time coordinate

t b :

Burn time

t ope :

Valve-open duration for operation

v D :

Detonation wave velocity

γ :

Specific heat ratio

γ g :

Specific heat ratio of combustion product

Δ :

Detonation channel width

Δm :

Mass decrease

ε c :

Nozzle throat contraction ratio

ε e :

Nozzle expansion ratio

Φ :

Equivalence ratio

f:

Fuel

ini:

Initial pre-ignition state

ox:

Oxidizer

ple:

Plenum

th:

Throat

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Acknowledgements

The present rotating detonation engine development was subsidized by the “Study on Innovative Detonation Propulsion Mechanism” Research-and-Development Grant Program (Engineering) of the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency and the “Research and Development of an Ultra-High-Thermal-Efficiency Rotating Detonation Engine with Self-Compression Mechanism” Advanced Research Program for Energy and Environmental Technologies of the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization. The fundamental device development was subsidized by Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (A), No. 24246137. The test piece and test chamber were manufactured by Yasuda Koki Co., Ltd., Mizutani Seiki Co., Ltd., and Nakamura Construction Co., Ltd. Funding was provided by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (Grant Nos. JP19H05464, JP18KK0127, JP17H03480, JP17K18937), Institute of Space and Astronautical Science.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Aerospace Engineering, Nagoya University, Furo-cho, Chikusa-ku, Nagoya, Aichi, 464-8603, Japan

    K. Goto, R. Yokoo, A. Kawasaki, K. Matsuoka & J. Kasahara

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, Keio University, 3-14-1 Hiyoshi, Kouhoku-ku, Yokohama, Kanagawa, 223-8522, Japan

    A. Matsuo

  3. Institute of Space and Astronautical Science, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, 3-1-1 Yoshinodai, Chuo-ku, Sagamihara, Kanagawa, 252-5210, Japan

    I. Funaki

  4. Research and Development directorate, Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, 2-1-1, Sengen, Tsukuba-shi, Ibaraki, 305-8505, Japan

    H. Kawashima

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  1. K. Goto
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  2. R. Yokoo
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Correspondence to J. Kasahara.

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Communicated by E. Gutmark.

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Goto, K., Yokoo, R., Kawasaki, A. et al. Investigation into the effective injector area of a rotating detonation engine with impact of backflow. Shock Waves 31, 753–762 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00193-021-00998-9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00193-021-00998-9

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