Experimental Investigation of Detonation Propagation Modes and Thrust Performance in a Small Rotating Detonation Engine Using C2H4/O2 Propellant

A small rotating detonation engine (RDE) model and the corresponding experimental setup were constructed for investigation of propagation characteristics thrust performance a circular RDE. Experiments conducted at range 0.3–2.5 equivalence ratio with total mass flow rate less than 180.0 g/s using C2H4/O2 mixture. Irregularly unstable detonative combustion occurs immediately after initiation, which includes propagation, decaying, merging waves. Following this, periodically unsteady in channel, resulting stable operation During operation, two waves are predominant, along wall speed lower Chapman–Jouguet (CJ) speed. The characteristic velocity efficiency is approximately 73% on average. low presumed to be caused by unoptimized channel poor mixing owing two-dimensional injector configuration. effect RDE component design field need further investigated improving