A Physics Based Reactor Network Model of a Rotating Detonation Engine Combustor

Abstract

A Chemical Reactor Network (CRN) model of a Rotating Detonation Engine (RDE) combustor is presented in this article. Efforts have been made to quantify the exhaust product composition and explore the inherent thermodynamic processes such as detonation, expansion, shock, etc. Parametric studies have been carried out to delineate the effect of major operating and modeling parameters such as variation in equivalence ratio and reaction mechanism on emissions, as well as variation of local thermodynamic states in the RDE. The CRN model is developed based on the two-dimensional unwrapped instantaneous solution of the annular flow field generated from Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation. The reactor zones have been identified utilizing the temperature and streamline distribution profile obtained from CFD. Key RDE features such as detonation, shock waves and expansion waves have also been incorporated. The CRN model predictions are compared with CFD solutions implemented using reduced reaction mechanisms. The major species composition at the RDE exhaust compares reasonably well with CFD results. The major objective of this study is towards development of a robust, efficient and preliminary design tool for RDE that — 1) is capable of predicting emissions with reasonable accuracy or at least appropriate trends, 2) can investigate the inherent complicated thermodynamic process and finally, 3) is able to provide a flexible and expandable approach that can be integrated into the combustor design methodology, allowing for a faster design iteration process.