GE's rotating detonation engine

[charlielima223]

I'm surprised this wasn't mentioned anywhere here on F-16.net as this seems like kind-of a big deal

https://interestingengineering.com/mili ... tup-ramjet

Sandbox news did a cover summary of it...

[hornetfinn]

Interesting stuff:

A novel type of jet propulsion, a rotating detonation engine (RDE), has been successfully tested by Pratt & Whitney. The development could be highly significant for the U.S. military, with RDE technology at the center of the project called Gambit, which aims to provide a propulsion system for a mass-producible, low-cost, high-supersonic, long-range weapon for air-to-ground strike.

RTX — of which Pratt & Whitney is a business unit — announced today that a series of tests on the RDE has been completed at the RTX Technology Research Center in Connecticut. Previously, RDE propulsion systems had only been run in the form of small prototypes.

Next, the company says it will move on to integrated engine and vehicle ground tests to be conducted with the U.S. Department of Defense “in the coming years.”

“Our testing simulated aggressive assumptions for how and where the rotating detonation engine needs to perform,” Chris Hugill, senior director of Pratt & Whitney’s GATORWORKS development team, said in a media release about the latest campaign. “This testing validated key elements of Pratt & Whitney’s design approach and provides substantiation to continue RTX vehicle and propulsion integration to accelerate future capabilities for our customers.”

In terms of how they operate, RDE propulsion systems have significant differences compared to a traditional turbojet or turbofan engine and hardly require any moving parts.

In turbojet or turbofan engines, air is fed in from an inlet and compressed, and then is mixed with fuel and burned via deflagration (where combustion occurs at a subsonic rate) in a combustion chamber. This process creates the continuous flow of hot, high-pressure air needed to make the whole system run.

In an RDE, the combustion (which happens at a supersonic rate) occurs in an enclosed, annular (ring-shaped) chamber. During flight, fast-moving air is sucked into the chamber and a mixture of fuel is injected into it. The injection ignites a flame-like detonation wave that travels around the ring for as long as fuel is injected, in a thermodynamic cycle, providing propulsive thrust.

The advantages of an RDE include high thermal efficiency and more power, which means the engine can also be smaller, lighter, and more cost-effective. After all, most longer-range air-to-ground missiles today require scaled-down jet engines that are single use, making this a much less cost-effective propulsion setup.

In a practical application, such as a missile, since an RDE is more compact than a traditional engine, there is more space for fuel, giving longer range. Additional capacity can also be used to house sensors, warheads, or other payloads.

Full article: https://www.twz.com/air/rotating-detona ... lly-tested

This sounds like incredibly promising technology. It seems to have potential to revolutionize propulsion technologies from ships to missiles.

[sprstdlyscottsmn]

There are a lot of "how do they do..." question I have right now.

Get the detonation
Control the airflow
extract electrical power

to start

[hornetfinn]

Yeah, there might be some "minor" challenges ahead... I think one major challenge is controlling the fuel injection and air flow so that the mixture burns correctly. AFAIK, they require very precise operation and getting the mixture just right to get the detonation wave work properly. Also controlling the detonation wave has been challenging.

[f119doctor]

With this development by P&W, perhaps admin should retitle this thread as just Rotating Detonation Engines ? Don’t think it will support two separate threads
https://www.rtx.com/news/news-center/20 ... ne-testing