Fuel Distribution Effects on Pulse Detonation Engine Operation and Performance
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Authors
Brophy, C.M.
Hanson, R.K.
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Date of Issue
2006
Date
November - December 2006
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Abstract
The validity and accuracy of performance measurements for pulse detonation engines depend on the ability to
accurately measure thrust and fuel mass flow rates during system operation. Experimental tests have revealed that
when fuel mass flow rates are calculated by conventional mass metering methods, incorrect values of the aggregate
fuel mass in the combustor will often be calculated due to inaccurate assumptions regarding the spatial fuel
distribution. The difficulty in predicting the actual fuel distribution affects the ability to achieve reliable detonations
for successful operation and introduces inaccuracies directly into the performance calculations. Tunable diode laser
and absorption spectroscopy techniques have been applied to provide time-resolved fuel mass fraction
measurements and improve the fidelity of the specific impulse calculations. Results show that stratified fuel
distributions that begin near stoichiometric at the forward end of the combustor and gradually become fuel lean near
the combustor exit produce substantially higher specific impulse values than axially uniform fuel distributions with
the same amount of aggregate fuel due to the ability to reliably detonate while operating at an overall lean condition.
Axially uniform fuel distributions at the same average equivalence ratio demonstrated lower detonability and
accordingly had lower thrust and specific impulse values.
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Article
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Mechanical & Astronautical Engineering
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This research was supported by the Office of Naval Research with Gabriel Roy as program manager. The authors would also like to thank Jose Sinibaldi at the Naval Postgraduate School and Ma Lin from Stanford for their contributions to this effort.
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Journal of Propulsion and Power, Volume 22, No. 6, November - December 2006.
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This publication is a work of the U.S. Government as defined in Title 17, United States Code, Section 101. Copyright protection is not available for this work in the United States.