Air-Breathing Liquid-Fueled Pulse Detonation Engine Demonstrator

Abstract

For the first time, a demonstrator of a new type of air-breathing liquid-fueled engine—a pulse detonation engine—has been designed and tested. Work on creating a pulse detonation engine is being carried out more and more actively [1, 2]. Such engines operate on a new principle of conversion of the chemical energy of fuel into propulsion, on which fuel is burnt in a traveling detonation wave. In comparison with existing combustion design in air-breathing and jet engines, the detonation combustion of fuel in a traveling wave has a number of fundamental advantages. First, the thermodynamic efficiency of the detonation cycle is much higher than that of other cycles, especially at low pressures in the combustion chamber [3]. Second, a pulse detonation engine can burn both special fuels and ordinary (liquid) jet propulsion fuels. Third, unlike many existing jet engines, a pulse detonation engine has a simple design (requires no expensive compressors or turbopumps) and is reliable (has no moving elements) and self-sufficient (needs no boosters to reach the operation mode). Finally, using the multitube design of a pulse detonation engine allows one to improve the thrust performance by simply increasing the number of chambers. Inasmuch as the practical implementation of detonation combustion of fuel saves energy resources, stationary power plants operating on this principle are also being developed.