Flow field of a rotating detonation engine fueled by carbon

Abstract

Solid-gas rotating detonation engines have been widely studied, but experimental limitations have prevented the full information of the flow field from being revealed. This paper describes a numerical investigation of the effect of the equivalence ratio on the two-phase flow field of a rotating detonation engine fueled by carbon and air. The discrete phase model and multiple surface reaction model are employed to determine the flow and combustion of carbon particles. The Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations are solved for the gas flow. The results show that a low-temperature air gap appears in place of deflagration in the two-phase flow field, and the gap extends into the products. Before the detonation wave, this air gap is the difference between the air and fuel layers. At higher equivalence ratios, two rotating detonation waves are formed by the contact between the high-temperature products and the fuel-air mixture.

Study on detonation characteristics of pulverized coal and evolution law of detonation residue

“…Compared with the study of detonation as propulsion technology, the research and development of in-situ detonation combustion of pulverized coal started relatively late, and its research is still in the experimental and simulation stage. Zhu et al 28 simulated the two-phase flow field in a Rotating Detonation Engine (RDC) using carbon/H 2 as fuel, revealing that a low-temperature methane gap replaces deflagration, enhancing the maximum Rotating Detonation Wave (RDW) to achieve a wave velocity performance of 1780 m/s. Salvadori et al 29 used the Euler-Lagrangian dense particle formula to simulate the discrete phase in detonation combustion.…”