Liquid Hydrocarbon Detonation Branching in a Pulse Detonation Engine

Abstract

Pulse detonation engines operate on a fill-detonate-exhaust cycle with thrust directly proportional to the cycle frequency. That is, a decrease in cycle time results in increased thrust. This paper shows that the detonate portion of the cycle can he shortened by using a branched detonation as the ignition source as opposed to a spark plug type of ignition. The combustion energy from a branched detonation allows ignition and deflagration-to-detonation transition to occur more quickly, shortening overall cycle time. Further, while detonation branching has been previously accomplished using gaseous hydrogen fuel, this paper reports the first application of detonation branching using liquid hydrocarbon fuel. For this application, a pressurized heating system was designed to vaporize the fuel and mix it with an airstream to stoichiometric conditions.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2004
Accession Number
ADA454353

Entities

People

  • Fred R. Schauer
  • K. C. Tucker
  • Kristin L. Panzenhagen
  • Paul I. King

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Sensors

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Aeronautics
  • Air Force
  • Air Force Research Laboratories
  • Air Temperature
  • Chemical Reaction Properties
  • Combustion
  • Combustion Products
  • Detonations
  • Frequency
  • Hydrocarbon Fuels
  • Hydrocarbons
  • Ignition
  • Ignition Lag
  • Military Research
  • Pressure Transducers
  • Spark Ignition
  • Spark Plugs

Readers

  • Mathematics or Statistics
  • Rocket Propulsion.