Experimental investigation on detonation wave propagation mode in the start-up process of rotating detonation turbine engine

Abstract Rotating detonation combustor with pressure-gain capability could be performed as the main combustor of a turbine engine to improve engine performance. In this paper, an experimental structure of a rotating detonation combustor combined with a radial-flow turbine was designed to investigate the start-up process of the rotating detonation turbine engine. The multiple detonation-wave modes of longitudinal pulsed detonation mode, single-wave mode, and multi-wave mode appeared in the combustor with different structures and equivalence ratios. For the guide vane text, the mode evolution process of detonation wave from one wave to several waves appears in the combustion chamber, and the final number of detonation wave increases with the increase of equivalence ratio. For the no guide vane text, the detonation wave in the combustion chamber appears only in the propagation modes of single-wave mode and longitudinal pulsed detonation mode. The longitudinal pulsed detonation mode appears in the range of high equivalence ratio.