There are few experimental studies on rotating detonation engines (RDEs) with liquid propellants. This study reveals the static thrust performance of a cylindrical RDE with ethanol and liquid nitrous oxide as propellants under atmospheric pressure. This RDE had an inner diameter of 40 mm, a maximum combustor length of 230 mm, a nozzle contraction ratio of 1.7, and a nozzle expansion ratio of 9.1. Nineteen experiments were conducted at total mass flow rates of 184 210    g / s , mixture ratios of 3.6–5.9, and combustion pressures of 0.35–0.46 MPa, resulting in a maximum detonation velocity of 1840    m / s (approximately 80% of the theoretical detonation velocity, 2251    m / s ), maximum thrust at sea level of 294 N, and maximum specific impulse at sea level of 148 s. In addition, the maximum characteristic exhaust velocity, c * , was 1716    m / s , which was 99% of the theoretical value. The characteristic length of the combustion chamber at this time was 0.15 m. Since conventional rocket combustion requires 1.57 m to achieve the same c * efficiency, this study shows that detonation combustion can reduce the combustor size by 88%.


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    Title :

    Nitrous Oxide/Ethanol Cylindrical Rotating Detonation Engine for Sounding Rocket Space Flight


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2025-01-01




    Type of media :

    Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English




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