An Innovative Pulse Detonation Engine

Currently, airbreathing propulsion systems which operate in the subsonic to high supersonic regime are expensive, complex and heavy. To overcome these limitations, a novel propulsion concept based on a liquid hydrocarbon-fueled Pulse Detonation Engine (PDE) is proposed. The innovation draws from recent successes in computational fluid dynamics and from several engineering studies and PDE development efforts performed by the authors. The proposed novel propulsion system has many highly desirable features including a very low unit cost, mechanical simplicity, and favorable performance. It would also be designed to be insensitive to accidental detonation initiation. The propulsion system can operate over a range of flight Mach numbers, has the potential to operate in a pure rocket mode, and is well suited for propelling missiles and a variety of other vehicles.