Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine

Pressure gain combustion (PGC), such as in a rotating detonation engine (RDE), has the potential to increase combustor efficiency up to 10%. This improvement would be valuable to many DoD systems such as thrusters, engines, and power generation units. In an earlier AFRL funded Phase I effort, GTL designed and modeled conceptual liquid injection rotating detonation engine concepts.Ā By the end of the effort, preliminary hardware designs of these novel combustors had been completed.Ā In this proposed DARPA phase II effort, these pressure gain combustor designs (i.e., rotating detonation rocket engines) will be finalized, fabricated, and tested.Ā The results of this testing will provide critical data on pressure gain combustor operation and performance.Ā The testing will be performed at the University of Tennessee Space Institute (UTSI). This data will complement the RDE work being performed at AFRL, NASA, and others.