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Experimental investigation of effect of partial filling on the impulse of pulse detonation engine

  • Articles
  • Engineering Thermophysics
  • Published:
Chinese Science Bulletin

Abstract

Using poor-detonable liquid C8H16/air mixture with low-energy system (total spark energy of 50 mJ) and a new one-step detonation initiation method developed in this study, partial-tube fill experiments have been conducted in a fixed length PDE tube with a fuel/air mixture section of different length, covering a wide range of the detonation tube fill fraction (ratio of fuel/air mixture length to tube length). Impulse was calculated by integrating the pressure differential at the closed end of the tube. Based on the results obtained experimentally, it is found that the fuel-based specific impulse declines when fill fraction increases. On the other hand, the total-mixture-based specific impulse rises as fill fraction increases. A multi-cycle partial-fill model is developed to predict the impulse obtained from a partially-filled detonation tube, which is valuable for the optimization of PDE performance.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Power and Energy, Northwestern Polytechnical University, Xi’an, 710072, China

    Zhang Qun, Yan ChuanJun, Fan Wei & Li Qiang

Authors
  1. Zhang Qun
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  2. Yan ChuanJun
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  3. Fan Wei
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  4. Li Qiang
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Zhang Qun.

Additional information

Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50336030), China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (Grant No. 20060400302), Northwestern Polytechnical University Plans for the Training Excellence (Grant No. 05XE0125) and New Century Excellent Talents in University (Grant No. NCET-04-0960)

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Zhang, Q., Yan, C., Fan, W. et al. Experimental investigation of effect of partial filling on the impulse of pulse detonation engine. CHINESE SCI BULL 52, 2859–2865 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-007-0391-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11434-007-0391-x

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