Effect of Initiator Conditions on Detonation Initiation and Impulse in Pulse-Detonation Engines

The effects of the initiator conditions to the detonation initiation and the impulse of the pulse detonation engine were investigated. White-gasoline-air mixture in the main combustor was detonated by the initiator filled with white-gasoline-oxygen mixture. It was found that a predominant parameter to initiate the detonation of white-gasoline-air mixture in the main combustor was the overflowed white-gasoline-oxygen volume from the initiator to the main combustor. In case of the pulse detonation engine investigated, the overflowed volume of 400cm3 was required to initiate reliably the detonation of white-gasoline-air mixture in the main combustor. It was also clarified that the loss of the impulse in the case, where the fully developed detonation was not observed in the main combustor, was caused by the exhausting of unburned white-gasoline-air mixture before it burned.