TY - JOUR
TI - Experimental investigation of thrust augmentation by ejectors on a pulse detonation engine
AU - Huang Xi-Qiao
AU - Li Moqi
AU - Guo Zhuo
AU - Zheng Longxi
JN - Thermal Science
PY - 2015
VL - 19
IS - 6
SP - 2105
EP - 2114
PT - Article
AB - Utilizing gasoline as the fuel, air as oxidizer, a series of multi-cycle  detonation experiments was conducted to study thrust augmentation by  PDE-driven ejectors. The straight cylindrical ejectors with different inner  diameter, length and inlet geometry were designed. The effects of the axial  location of the ejectors relative to the end of the detonation tube, ejector  length-to-diameter ratio on thrust augmentation were investigated, with the  operating frequency of 25 Hz. A peak thrust augmentation level of 80.5% was  achieved by adding an ejector to the exit of the detonation tube. Performance  measurements of the PDE-ejector system showed that thrust augmentation is a  strong function of the ejector axial position. The result indicated that  there exists a maximum thrust augmentation with ejector upstream of the  detonation tube exit at least. The exact location at which the maximum thrust  augmentation was obtained varies with the ejector-to-PDE diameter ratio and  the ejector inlet geometry. With the increase of the length-to-diameter  ratio, thrust augmentation was noticeably enhanced and finally tended to a  constant. There exists an optimum ejector length. In the present study, the  optimum length-to-diameter ratio of ejector was 4.58. Furthermore, the effect  of operating frequency on ejector thrust augmentation also investigated. The  operating frequency was varied from 15 Hz to 35 Hz.