Experimental investigations on pulse detonation rocket engine with various injectors and nozzles

Pulse detonation engines (PDEs) may represent a revolutionary approach to propulsion. The engine of simple construction can be easily manufactured. The pulse detonation rocket engine (PDRE) used here are 30 mm in inner diameter and 860 mm in length. Liquid kerosene, gaseous oxygen and nitrogen were used as fuel, oxidizer and purge gas, respectively. Two-phase detonation generating is harder than gaseous detonation due to liquid fuel atomization and mixing of two-phase reactants. It is a difficult task for liquid fuel and gaseous oxidizer to mix and form uniformly distributed mixture in the entire long engine during filling process in a short time. Therefore the velocities of fuel and oxidizer must be well designed to achieve not only the requirement of filling the entire engine but also the requirement of liquid fuel atomization and reactants mixing. Four injectors were tested to improve the atomization of liquid fuel and mixing process of reactants for performance enhancement of PDRE. Injector with small fuel exit area and large gas exit area was found to be effective for liquid fuel atomization and reactants mixing process. The PDRE with injector B performed the best among all the injectors tested. Nozzles are critical components in improving the performance of PDRE. Four kinds of bell-shaped convergingdiverging nozzles were also tested here in order to enhance the performance of PDRE. It was found that a nozzle with high contraction ratio and high expansion ratio generated the highest thrust augmentation of 27.3%.