Study on the performance of a rotating detonation chamber with different aerospike nozzles

Abstract To generate thrust efficiently is the ultimate objective of developing a practical propulsion device utilizing detonation. The rotating detonation engine shows its great potentials because of pressure gain combustion is produced while detonations rotate inside the chamber. In order to improve the propulsive performance of a rotating detonation engine, investigations have been carried out theoretically and experimentally focusing on aerospike nozzles. A method of designing aerospike nozzles for the rotating detonation chamber was proposed. Three aerospike nozzles, with different geometry structures including conical and flat configurations and design pressure ratios, were developed in different design points. Compared to the nozzle-less condition, three operation modes have been obtained in the combustion chamber with nozzles. The results indicate that the reflected wave caused by the convergent section will induce the generation of multiple waves. The pressure gains in the combustion chamber were varied with different nozzle geometries. The propulsive performance of the conical configuration nozzle was better than the flat one. In addition, with the increase of the mass flow rate, the thrust was increased for all the cases while the maximum specific impulse was achieved at a flow rate of 0.190 kg/s.