Two-phase Pulse Detonation Engine Scale Model Tests And Numerical Study

Pulse detonation engine (PDE) is a new concept of propulsive system, which utilizes high temperature and pressure gas produced by intermittent or pulsed detonation wave to generate thrust. PDE has many desirable advantages, including high thermodynamics cycle efficiency, high thrust/weight and specific impulse, simple configuration, and will become one of the propulsive devices of aviation and spacecraft in 21st century.The working principle and cycle of two-phase pulse detonation engine are analyzed. The experimental data of pulse detonation engine model with inner diameter 6cm is obtained. And the orifice diameter of orifice plate and the helical pitch of spring in mixing chamber effects on PDE model are investigated.This paper also addresses the injection, mixing and atomization processes for plain-orifice injector and twin-fluid air-assist atomizer. A particle size meter based on laser light scattering is employed to measure mean droplet size. And the relationship between droplet size and gasoline mass and gasoline/air ratio is available. The mixing characteristics inside a mixing chamber simulated by three-dimensional CFD code are in general agreement with the experiment. Combining the atomization data with the multi-cycle detonation data, droplet size of gasoline has a considerable effect on the gasoline-air equivalence ratio and gasoline filling ratio. The smaller the droplet size, the lower the equivalence ratio required to stable detonation. The smaller the droplet size, the higher the gasoline filling ratio. As the detonation frequency increases, the effects of droplet size on equivalence ratio and filling ratio decrease.The filling mode of two-phase propellant, atomizer of PDE model with inner diameter 12cm is selected utilizing the experimental experience of PDE model with less inner diameter. The possible mixing chamber configurations are optimized experimentally and a better configuration is available. The experiment data of PDE with several mixing configurations is also obtained, which is beneficial to futureresearch.The detonation wave propagating in the detonation tube is simulated additionally utilizing one-dimensional method of characteristic...