Numerical study on rotating detonation stability in two-phase kerosene-air mixture

Kerosene/air two-phase rotating detonation is numerically investigated to find out the limits of detonation stability as a function of total pressure and total temperature considering the operation conditions of the detonation engine. The Eulerian-Lagrangian two-phase governing system is used and the kerosene/air two-step reaction mechanism is applied to simulate the unsteady features, such as self-sustained propagation and quenching. The findings from the parametric study show that stable rotating detonation is achieved in a limited range of total pressure and the increasing total temperature contributes to detonation stability. The bifurcated wave structure is formed in the two-phase rotating detonation and the promotion of droplet evaporation tends to weaken this near-inlet complex wave feature. The reaction-dominated quenching and the evaporation-dominated quenching are two mechanisms for the breakdown of the detonation front, which is due to the interaction among fluid dynamics, droplet evaporation, and exothermic reaction.