Abstract:

With an annular evaporator wrapped outside the detonation tube of a pulse detonation engine (PDE), kerosene is heated by the high wall temperature of tube prior to being fed into the PDE, which has already been initiated by gasoline. With well designed intake valve the kerosene steam is fed into the PDE after it has started working steadily. Research work is carried out on evaporator-PDE characteristics under different frequencies, evaporator air fluxes and ratios of kerosene to gasoline in the PDE. It shows that PDE operation frequency and air-fuel equivalence ratio in the evaporator play a distinct role in the process of detonation ignition and initiation as well as the characteristics of detonation wave pressure and velocity. Using the kerosene steam, the time needed to initiate detonation wave can be considerably reduced. It proves that pre-evaporated kerosene heated by the wall temperature of a multi-cycle air breathing PDE may significantly improve PDE performance.

Key words: pulse detonation engine, evaporator, kerosene, wall-temperature, detonation characteristics