Experimental Study on the Performance of a Rotating Detonation Combustor with Different Outlet Restrictions

Abstract

Outlet restrictions, usually appear as geometric throats, are commonly used in increasing combustor pressure and enhancing propulsive performance. To investigate the influence of outlet restrictions on the performance of the rotating detonation combustor (RDC), three throats with a convergence ratio of 0.6, 0.8, and 1.0, respectively, were used in this study. Normalized thrust was utilized to evaluate the propulsive performance. The results show that single-wave mode will be obtained when the mass flow rate exceeds 100 g/s, and the wave velocity is close to the estimated theoretical value. Thrust is increased when a smaller throat is employed, while normalized thrust remains nearly constant. In addition, that detonation waves propagate well in the RDC is not a sufficient condition for an RDC to achieve its ideal performance, inlet restrictions rather than outlet restriction, might play a more important role in achieving the pressure gain.