Parametric Influence on Rotating Detonation Combustion: Insights from Fast Reactive Euler Simulations

Abstract

A two-dimensional unsteady reactive Euler solver is employed to model rotating detonation combustion (RDC). A baseline case is chosen, and several combustor geometric and design parameters are varied individually in order to assess their effect on flowfield structure, exhaust flow properties, and performance. The parameters of interest are the perimeter and axial lengths of the combustor annulus, mass flux, outlet throat area, air injector throat area, and equivalence ratio. Quantification of the isentropically available work (IAW) in the exhaust flow is employed as a performance criterion. IAW is primarily affected by mass flux and outlet throat area through the effects of one-dimensional flow and, to a lesser degree, by perimeter and axial length through changes in the fraction of the flow that experiences irreversible shock processing. For all cases in the present study, this fraction appears to be solely determined by the ratio of detonation height to axial length. This ratio is also highly correlated to the angle of the oblique shock and the strength of the flow fluctuations. The predicted wave speed is between 90 and 95% of the Chapman–Jouguet velocity for a range of equivalence ratios between 0.6 and 1.4.