Investigation of pressure gain characteristics of RDE with Tesla valve inlet scheme

Abstract

Total pressure gain is one of the most significant performance metrics for rotating detonation engines. In this study, a Tesla valve is introduced with the intention of suppression of pressure feedback to improve the total pressure gain of RDE. A Tesla RDE has larger total pressure gain than a baseline RDE in some cases of 1.3Kg/s and 1.0Kg/s for A8/A3.2 of 0.25 because it can delay the onset of Longitudinal pulsed detonation (LPD). Compared with published data, kerosene/oxygen-enriched achieves slightly higher total pressure gain than gaseous fuels. The maximum total pressure gain measured using the Equivalent available pressure (EAP) is −6.84%. As injection stiffness decreases, total pressure gain increases towards zero. Injection stiffness tends to decrease with increasing velocity for the given mass flow rates of air and nozzle. The pressure of the combustor inlet is positively correlated with the product of the detonation wave velocity and the mass flux of the nozzle outlet. Values of outlet total pressure calculated using EAP and Mach corrected static pressure (MCSP) are nearly the same, and deviations of them are summarized. When the Mach number of the nozzle outlet and total pressure recovery coefficient are taken into consideration, MCSP decreases while EAP increases.