Experimental investigation of pulse detonation wave phenomenon

Abstract

The subject of this paper is the experimental study of detonation wave phenomenon conducted at the University of Texas at Arlington. This study was conducted to gain a basic understanding of the physical mechanisms governing the evolution of detonation waves in order to develop an operational Pulse Detonation Engine. The study was conducted in a simple cylindrical test chamber where several parameters could bc varied. These parameters were the length to diameter ratio, ignition location, ignition energy, initial pressures, types of fuels and tnrhulence quality. The detonation characteristics examined were the detonation wave velocities and pressures. It was observed that the turbulent creating devices and high initial pressures were instrumental in achieving Chapman-Jouguet detonation velocities. It was also observed that detonations were achieved in all of the tests, but the velocities of the detonations were considerably lower than the velocities predicted by theory. Based on these results it was concluded that fuel and oxidizer mixing is the most important factor in achieving a Chapman-Jouguet detonation.-* Tlns material is based in part upon work supported by the Texas Advanced Technology Program under Grant No. 003656-056. Theory of Operation Student Member Member 5 Associate Fellow In theory a Pulse Detonation Engine would operate by filling a chamber with a fuel and oxidizer Copyright C3 1995 by the American Institute of Aeronautics combination, detonating the mixture and then and Astronautics, Inc. All rights reserved. refilling the chamber once the exhaust products are 1

Development of a high-pressure detonation-driven shock tube facility

“…15 Relatively good agreement is observed between the measured pressure ratio and the value predicted from Eq. (2) using the measured wave speed in the forward part of the driven tube.…”

“…15 ' 16 The PDE research combustor developed as part of this program was reconfigured as a detonation-driven shock tube in order to provide experimental validation of the proposed concept.…”

“…Furthermore, an experience base has been generated at UTA to support this approach via an ongoing research program to develop Pulse Detonation Engine (PDE) concepts. 15 ' 16 Much of the technology developed as part of this program would be directly applicable to the detonation-driven shock tunnel.…”

Experimental Study of Propane-Fueled Pulsed Detonation Rocket

“…Previous work has suggested that the wave speed, using a time-offlight (TOF) method, remains a good indicator of DDT, instead of relying on pressure peaks. 9 The TOF method, when used with the 1 MHz digitizers, yielded a resolution of 2 µs for velocities of 2000 m/s, resulting in a 5 percent error. TOF data at 4.4 and 6.9 Hz were obtained with 1 MHz digitizers, while those at 14.4 and 20 Hz were obtained with 100 digitizers.…”

Injection and mixing of gas propellants for pulse detonation propulsion

“…Researchers like Bussing and his team at ASI started with shock-tube experiments for the development of PDEs 1 , and later reported a practical implementation of multi-cycle detonation chambers 2 . Wilson and researchers at UTA have developed single and multi-cycle detonation combustion with various fueloxidizer mixtures 3 ' 5 . Eidelman 6 has patented PDE concepts and has reported results from experimental and computational detonation combustion.…”