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Article
Publication date: 4 July 2016

Adam Okninski, Jan Kindracki and Piotr Wolanski

Today’s modern liquid propellant rocket engines have a very complicated structure. They cannot be arbitrarily downsized, ensuring efficient propellants’ mixing and combustion…

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Abstract

Purpose

Today’s modern liquid propellant rocket engines have a very complicated structure. They cannot be arbitrarily downsized, ensuring efficient propellants’ mixing and combustion. Moreover, the thermodynamic cycle’s efficiency is relatively low. Utilizing detonation instead of deflagration could lead to a significant reduction of engine chamber dimensions and mass. Nowadays, laboratory research is conducted in the field of rotating detonation engine (RDE) testing worldwide. The aim of this paper is to cover the design of a flight demonstrator utilizing rocket RDE technology.

Design/methodology/approach

It presents the key project iterations made during the design of the gaseous oxygen and methane-propelled rocket. One of the main goals was to develop a rocket that could be fully recoverable. The recovery module uses a parachute assembly. The paper describes the rocket’s main subsystems. Moreover, vehicle visualizations are presented. Simple performance estimations are also shown.

Findings

This paper shows that the development of a small, open-structure, rocket RDE-powered vehicle is feasible.

Research limitations/implications

Flight propulsion system experimentation is on-going. However, first tests were conducted with lower propellant feeding pressures than required for the first launch.

Practical implications

Importantly, the vehicle can be a test platform for a variety of technologies. The rocket’s possible further development, including educational use, is proposed.

Originality/value

Up-to-date, no information about any flying vehicles using RDE propulsion systems can be found. If successful in-flight experimentation was conducted, it would be a major milestone in the development of next-generation propulsion systems.

Details

Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology: An International Journal, vol. 88 no. 4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1748-8842

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Article
Publication date: 7 June 2013

Qi Zhang and Lei Pang

Explosions are the main type of accident causing casualties in underground coal mines. Little attention has been devoted to investigating the flame propagations for methane‐air…

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Abstract

Purpose

Explosions are the main type of accident causing casualties in underground coal mines. Little attention has been devoted to investigating the flame propagations for methane‐air explosion in a tunnel with full scale. This paper seeks to address this topic.

Design/methodology/approach

Based on the numerical simulation and the analysis, the propagation rule of flame and temperature waves inside and outside the space occupied by methane/air mixture at the various concentrations in a tunnel were obtained in this work.

Findings

The original interface of methane‐air mixture and air moves forward in the explosion and the original mixture area extends. For the methane‐air mixture with rich fuel concentration, the flame speed increases with distance within a range beyond the original position of the interface between the mixture and air. The flame speed reaches maximum value outside the original area of methane‐air mixture with rich fuel concentration.

Originality/value

Based on the numerical simulation and the analysis, the propagation rule of flame and temperature wave inside and outside the space occupied by methane/air mixture at the various concentrations in a tunnel were obtained.

Details

International Journal of Numerical Methods for Heat & Fluid Flow, vol. 23 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0961-5539

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