Experimental and numerical study of the rotating detonation engine in hydrogen-air mixtures

Abstract

Experimental and numerical study of rotating detonation is presented. The experimental study is focused on the evaluation of the geometry of the detonation chamber and the conditions at which the rotating detonation can propagate in cylindrical channels. Lean hydrogen-air mixtures were tested in the experiments. The pressure measured at different locations was used to check the detonative nature of combustion. Also, the relationship between detonation velocity and operation conditions is analyzed in the paper. The experimental study is accompanied with numerical analysis. The paper briefly presents the results of two-dimensional (2D) numerical simulation of detonative combustion. The detonating mixture is created by mixting hydrogen with air. The air is injected axially to the chamber and hydrogen is injected through the inner wall of the chamber in radial direction. Application of proper injection conditions (pressure and nozzle area) allows establishing a stable rotating detonation like in the experiments. The detonation can be sustained for some range of conditions which are studied herein. The analysis of mean parameters of the process is provided as well. The numerical simulation results agree well with the experiments.