Session: 06-02 Pressure Gain Combustion I

Paper Number: 122373

122373 - Operation of a Fully Integrated Rotating Detonation Combustor in a T63 Gas Turbine Engine 

The Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) has designed a rotating detonation combustor (RDC) as a replacement for the main burner in a T63 gas turbine engine. Unlike the stock combustor, this RDC operates on gaseous hydrogen. A previous AFRL effort developed a similar RDC but in an open loop configuration. In that configuration, the air and cooling flows were fed from separate external sources and the compressor discharge was diverted and used to estimate compressor work. The focus of that project was to determine the impact of unsteadiness from an RDC on turbine efficiency. Results from the previous project showed that there was minimal impact to turbine efficiency when the detonation outflow was mixed with the cooling flows in a mixer/ejector configuration. The current work is a follow-on effort to design an RDC that operates in a closed loop configuration. Operation and cooling of the RDC is done with the compressor discharge with no external support. The main challenges associated with this effort are designing an RDC that has sufficient performance to close the engine cycle, the ability to work over the entire operating map, and thermal steady state operation. This work goes over the main results and conclusions from the test.

Presenting Author: Robert Fievisohn Air Force Research Laboratory

Presenting Author Biography: Rob Fievisohn is a research engineer with the Disruptive Propulsion Group at the Air Force Research Laboratories. Rob received his PhD in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Maryland in 2016. He specializes in analytical and experimental analysis of rotating detonation engines as well as fundamental detonation physics.

Authors:

Robert T. Fievisohn Air Force Research Laboratory
Ryan Battelle Air Force Research Laboratory
Miad Karimi Air Force Research Laboratory
Christopher Klingshirn Air Force Research Laboratory