Exploring feasibility of missile's employment of air-breathing two-phase PDE (pulse detonation engine)

We have gradually come to believe that recent progress in PDE research has made it quite feasible to let missiles, UAVs and UCAVs to employ air-breathing two-phase PDE. We now report experimental method and show the schematic of our experimental air-breathing PDE model, 60mm in inside diameter, which includes the well-known Shchelkin spiral; under cool flow conditions, the inner flow resistance coefficient of the inlet was measured; under nearly atmospheric pressure, a proof-of-principle experiment of a two-phase air-breathing PDE model was successfully carried out; we developed liquid C₈H₁₈/air mixture for this study; experimental results show the very important fact that the measured detonation wave pressure was very close to that of fully developed detonation; the PDE model was operated at a repetition frequency up to 15 Hz with the pressure's variation inside the intake always within 0.1 MPa experimentally, implying that the intake designed matches the detonation tube well.