Experimental Study of Ejectors’ Effect on the Performance of Pulse Detonation Rocket Engine

Abstract

Experimental studies were performed to investigate the ejector’s effect on the performance of a pulse detonation rocket engine (PDRE). The PDRE employed in the experiments utilizes gasoline as fuel and air as oxidizer. The operating frequency of the PDRE is 10 and 20 Hz respectively. Performance is quantified by thrust measurements, and the average thrust of the PDRE is obtained by integration of the thrust measured in the experiment. The experimental results show that the PDRE can increase thrust augmentation with an ejector, a maximum thrust augmentation is measured by 18.7% at 10 Hz operating frequency. In the experiment, axial placement (X/DPDRE) of the ejector is varied downstream the PDRE tube of 0.5,1 and 2 respectively. It is found that the thrust augmentation obviously increases when the relative position at 1 and 2, and also the thrust augmentation increases at higher operating frequency. The experiment result is useful for the development of a PDRE producing higher thrust.