In the new era of space exploration, there is a strong need for more efficient, cheaper and more reliable propulsion devices. With dramatic increase in specific impulse, the overall mass of fuel to be lifted into orbit is decreased, and this leads, in turn, to much lower mass requirements at lift-off, higher payload ratios and lower launch costs. The Pulsed Detonation engine (PDE) has received much attention lately due to its unique combination of simplicity, light-weight and efficiency. Current investigations focus principally on its use as a low speed, airbreathing engine, although other applications have also been proposed. Its use as a rocket propulsion device was first proposed in 1988 by the present authors. The superior efficiency of the Pulsed Detonation Rocket Engine (PDRE) is due to the near constant volume combustion process of a detonation wave. Our preliminary estimates suggest that the PDRE is theoretically capable of achieving specific impulses as high as 720 sec, a dramatic improvement over the current 480 sec of conventional rocket engines, making it competitive with nuclear thermal rockets. In addition to this remarkable efficiency, the PDRE may eliminate the need for high pressure cryogenic turbopumps, a principal source of failures. The heat transfer rates are also much lower, eliminating the need for nozzle cooling. Overall, the engine is more reliable and has a much lower weight. This paper will describe in detail the operation of the PDRE and calculate its performance, through numerical simulations. Engineering issues will be addressed and discussed, and the impact on mission profiles will also be presented. Finally, the performance of the PDRE using in-situ resources, such as CO and O2 from the martian atmosphere, will also be computed.


    Zugriff

    Zugriff über TIB

    Verfügbarkeit in meiner Bibliothek prüfen


    Exportieren, teilen und zitieren



    Titel :

    Preliminary Studies of a Pulsed Detonation Rocket Engine


    Beteiligte:
    Cambier, Jean-Luc (Autor:in) / Adelman, H. G. (Autor:in) / Menees, G. P. (Autor:in) / Edwards, Thomas A. (Autor:in)

    Kongress:

    31st AIAA Joint Propulsion Conference ; 1995 ; San Diego, CA, United States


    Erscheinungsdatum :

    1995-01-01


    Medientyp :

    Aufsatz (Konferenz)


    Format :

    Keine Angabe


    Sprache :

    Englisch




    Performance Enhancements on a Pulsed Detonation Rocket Engine

    Meyers, Jason / Lu, Frank / Wilson, Don | AIAA | 2003


    Preliminary Experiments on Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine for Flight Demonstration Using Sounding Rocket

    Goto, Keisuke / Nishimura, Junpei / Higashi, Junichi et al. | AIAA | 2018


    Preliminary Work for a Pulsed Detonation Engine Demonstrator

    Daniau, Emeric / Falempin, Francois / Zhang, G. et al. | AIAA | 2006


    Preliminary numerical simulations of a pulsed detonation wave engine

    CAMBIER, JEAN-LUC / ADELMAN, HENRY | AIAA | 1988