NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION of WAVE STRUCTURE IN ROTATING DETONATION ENGINES

In this study, the detonation wave structure and thrust performance of the rotating detonation engine were investigated numerically. Numerical studies are in two stages. First, validation studies were carried out according to the referenced study. Experimental and numerical studies are included in the reference study. In experimental studies, hydrogen is transferred from 90 injectors with a diameter of 0.8 mm, and the air is transferred to the detonation channel through a gap of 0.4 mm wide. As included in the reference numerical study, one-step irreversible hydrogen-air mechanism was used in validation studies. To examine the detonation wave in detail after the validation analysis, the 19-steps irreversible hydrogen-air reaction mechanism was defined in numerical studies. The transient density-based solver was used for numerical analyses. In the second stage, the detonation wave structure and the thrust performance of the rotating detonation engine were investigated. As a result, it was determined that the detonation wave could reach a stable structure after 1.1 ms. The detonation wave height was not constant due to the blockage ratio changing before t= 1.1 ms. The stable detonation wave height was found to be 29 mm and 27 mm in one-step and 19-steps reaction mechanism studies, respectively. When the thrust distribution at the exit of the detonation channel was examined, it was determined that it was almost constant with the stable detonation wave and it was observed that oscillations occurred in the range of 678.7±2.3 N in the thrust value.