Recent Progress, Development Trends, and Consideration of Continuous Detonation Engines

Abstract

The continuous detonation engine (CDE) is based on detonation waves and is a new jet engine concept that is expected to bring a technical revolution to current aviation and aerospace propulsion systems. Some scholars have also called this concept the continuously rotating detonation engine or rotating detonation engine. The advantages and application potential of the CDE have been widely recognized and verified with research focused in three directions: continuous detonation rocket engines, continuous detonation ramjet engines, and continuous detonation turbojet engines. This paper reviews recent progress (primarily in the last five years) of CDE from the perspective of engineering applications. Research on continuous detonation rocket engines has gone from concept exploration to mechanism research, and it is moving toward engineering applications. Large-scale prototype testing may be the next step, especially with experiments based on liquid methane and liquid oxygen that need further development. The continuous detonation ramjet engine is still in the conceptual design and principle exploration stages. To adapt to broader inflow conditions and working Mach numbers, the combination of different working modes of a CDE may be of further interest. The continuous detonation turbojet engine is still in the scheme demonstration stage. Significant research work is needed in terms of experimental, numerical, and theoretical analyses, especially toward finding individual phenomena, mechanism exploration, and multicomponent coupling test. The performance of continuous detonation with solid fuels will also benefit from additional investigations and verifications.