Filling Of Methane/air Mixture In A Tube For Pulse Detonation Engines

Abstract

In pulse detonation engines, filling is a time consuming process; reducing these times will help to increase the frequency. The filling of a detonation tube, 1 m long tube with an internal diameter of 101.6 mm, closed at one end and opened at the other, was studied using the unsteady flow solver methane and air nominally at STP· Three cases were examined: (i) a 25.4 mm diameter port at the center of the closed end, (ii) nine ports of 25.4 mm diameter, one at the center of the closed end and eight distributed in two diametrically opposite rows, equally, four on each side, and (iii) the same configuration as case (ii) but with the openings replaced by “showerheads ”· The common inflow condition for all three cases is that the average velocity at the inlet is 93 m/s· The criterion for the fill time is when the tube is filled with 90 percent of the premix·