In the US, a rotating detonation rocket engine takes flight
arstechnica.com
In the US, a rotating detonation rocket engine takes flight
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Re: In the US, a rotating detonation rocket engine takes flight
#2From the article:
"In contrast to a traditional rocket engine, in which a highly pressurized propellant and an oxidizer are injected into a combustion chamber where they burn and produce an energetic exhaust plume, a rotating detonation engine is different in that a wave of detonation travels around a circular channel. This is sustained by the injection of fuel and oxidizer and produces a shockwave that travels outward at supersonic speed."
Nope ... on my way to do web searches to try to figure out what this means.
First stop: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rotating_detonation_engine
"A rotating detonation engine (RDE) uses a form of pressure gain combustion, where one or more detonations continuously travel around an annular channel. ... In detonative combustion, the flame front expands at supersonic speed. It is theoretically up to 25% more efficient than conventional deflagrative combustion ... Disadvantages include instability and noise."
No images, no animations.
OK ... bookmarked, and I'll chase the references later.
Edit: OK, here's the best reference I've found so far:
https://www.sandboxx.us/news/what-is-a-rotating-detonation-e...
Now back to work.
Re: In the US, a rotating detonation rocket engine takes flight
#3From the article: "In contrast to a traditional rocket engine, in which a highly pressurized propellant and an oxidizer are injected into a combustion chamber where they burn and produce an energetic exhaust plume, a rotating detonation engine is different in that a wave of detonation travels around a circular channel. This is sustained by the injection of fuel and oxidizer and produces a shockwave that travels outwa…
If I’m understanding this correctly, if you set off one bomb the explosion travels at a certain speed, but if you put a bunch of bombs in a circle and set them off one at a time, the very last explosion will be going a lot faster than the first one?
Re: In the US, a rotating detonation rocket engine takes flight
#4From the article: "In contrast to a traditional rocket engine, in which a highly pressurized propellant and an oxidizer are injected into a combustion chamber where they burn and produce an energetic exhaust plume, a rotating detonation engine is different in that a wave of detonation travels around a circular channel. This is sustained by the injection of fuel and oxidizer and produces a shockwave that travels outwa…
Integza made a YouTube video[1] where he visited a lab where they had a RDE, and includes some nice explanations, animations and slow-mos of the prototype in action.
His channel has a certain flavor, but at least the video is informative.
Re: In the US, a rotating detonation rocket engine takes flight
#5From the article: "In contrast to a traditional rocket engine, in which a highly pressurized propellant and an oxidizer are injected into a combustion chamber where they burn and produce an energetic exhaust plume, a rotating detonation engine is different in that a wave of detonation travels around a circular channel. This is sustained by the injection of fuel and oxidizer and produces a shockwave that travels outwa…
Scott Manley has a great video about them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG_Eh0J_4_s
Re: In the US, a rotating detonation rocket engine takes flight
#6From the article: "In contrast to a traditional rocket engine, in which a highly pressurized propellant and an oxidizer are injected into a combustion chamber where they burn and produce an energetic exhaust plume, a rotating detonation engine is different in that a wave of detonation travels around a circular channel. This is sustained by the injection of fuel and oxidizer and produces a shockwave that travels outwa…
Scott Manley has a great video about them: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rG_Eh0J_4_s
My first thought when I read this: "I bet Scott Manley has a video about this."
Re: In the US, a rotating detonation rocket engine takes flight
#72 hours? What's the point? It could be 0 minutes with a 0% explosion rate and the total travel time would probably be longer.
Re: In the US, a rotating detonation rocket engine takes flight
#8From the article: "In contrast to a traditional rocket engine, in which a highly pressurized propellant and an oxidizer are injected into a combustion chamber where they burn and produce an energetic exhaust plume, a rotating detonation engine is different in that a wave of detonation travels around a circular channel. This is sustained by the injection of fuel and oxidizer and produces a shockwave that travels outwa…
If I’m understanding this correctly, if you set off one bomb the explosion travels at a certain speed, but if you put a bunch of bombs in a circle and set them off one at a time, the very last explosion will be going a lot faster than the first one?
From my understanding, it's more that the explosion phase of a detonation is more fuel-efficient than the burning phase, but can't last very long under normal circumstances because the flame front is moving so fast-- This is a trick to continue fueling the explosion to sustain it over an indefinite time period.
Think about it in terms of an old-fashioned gunpowder line fuse: If you lay it out in a ring and have some kind of mechanism to continuously place down new gunpowder on the ring in front of the flame, you can keep it going until you run out of fuel.
Re: In the US, a rotating detonation rocket engine takes flight
#9From the article: "In contrast to a traditional rocket engine, in which a highly pressurized propellant and an oxidizer are injected into a combustion chamber where they burn and produce an energetic exhaust plume, a rotating detonation engine is different in that a wave of detonation travels around a circular channel. This is sustained by the injection of fuel and oxidizer and produces a shockwave that travels outwa…
Those descriptions are actually both correct, but one is describing the elephant's trunk and another the elephant's ear.
Re: In the US, a rotating detonation rocket engine takes flight
#10From the article: "In contrast to a traditional rocket engine, in which a highly pressurized propellant and an oxidizer are injected into a combustion chamber where they burn and produce an energetic exhaust plume, a rotating detonation engine is different in that a wave of detonation travels around a circular channel. This is sustained by the injection of fuel and oxidizer and produces a shockwave that travels outwa…
If I’m understanding this correctly, if you set off one bomb the explosion travels at a certain speed, but if you put a bunch of bombs in a circle and set them off one at a time, the very last explosion will be going a lot faster than the first one?
You've got the speed at which a detonation progresses within the explosive material and the speed at which the shock wave travels through the air. Neither is going to change based on the bomb's arrangement. But if you detonate a string of bombs so that each goes as the shock front from the first reaches it you can get, through constructive and destructive interference, a shockwave going mostly in one direction. But that's mostly not related to how this engine works.