Simulation of liquid droplets combustion in a rotating detonation engine

Recent research towards using liquid fuel in rotating detonation engines (RDE) has been assessed here using numerical simulations of a representative three-dimensional (3D) configuration. Eulerian-Lagrangian simulations of a 3D non-premixed RDE configuration are conducted and it is demonstrated that kerosene injection through the air plenum helps stabilize the RDE operation at the conditions where a pure gaseous H 2 RDE is unable to sustain the propagation of a detonation. The H 2 -fueled RDE is first simulated at a global equivalence ratio of 0.5, which shows unstable burning with localized extinction and re-ignition followed by system failure, and then compared against another simulation where kerosene droplets are injected in the air plenum keeping the same H 2 fueling condition. The results show that the existence of the detonation aids in the evaporation of the injected droplets behind it, allowing the vaporized mixture to properly mix before the next detonation cycle such that continuous (cyclic and stable) propagation can be achieved. It is further shown that whereas hydrogen mainly reacts near the bottom of the chamber, the injected droplets vaporize slow and react at larger heights. As a result, for the latter case the heat release is more distributed and provides an additional mechanism to stabilize the detonation cycle.& COPY; 2022 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Automated summary

The use of liquid fuel in rotating detonation engines (RDE) has been evaluated through numerical simulations. It was found that injecting kerosene through the air plenum stabilizes the RDE operation when a pure gaseous H2 RDE cannot sustain detonation propagation. The injection of kerosene droplets aids in their evaporation and proper mixing of the vaporized mixture, allowing for continuous and stable propagation.