Exploratory study on new pulse detonation engines

Abstract The worldwide progress in studies on pulse detonation engines (PDE) is briefly reviewed and some results of out ex-ploratory study on PDE are presented. Analysis of thermodynamic cycle is made and the specific impulse formula is improved. A proof-of-principle experiment of a two-phase PDE is successfully carried out, using poor-detonable liquid C8H16/air mixture with a low-energy sys-tem (total spark energy of 50 mJ) and a newly developed one-step detonation initiation method. The measured detonation wave pressureratio is very close to that of C-J detonation. The effects of length, diameter and detonation frequency on PDE performance are experimen-tally investigated. For liquid hydrocarbon fuel/air mixture, the PDE operation is successfully realized with an engine length of 1000 mmand detonation frequency up to 36 Hz, which has made an important step toward practical PDE. The developed code can be used for simu-lating PDE operation processes including deflagration to detonation transition (