Experimental approaches for obtaining a temporally- and spatially-averaged representative static pressure for rotating detonation engines
Joshua R. Codoni, Grant Birindelli, Alexis Thoeny, Christopher Brophy
Abstract
View Video Presentation: https://doi.org/10.2514/6.2022-2369.vid The objectives of this work are twofold. First, to present a current status of the NPS RPL effort to experimentally characterize experimental equivalent available pressure and a static pressure-derived RDE total pressure measurement technique, colloquially referred to as the “NPS Method.” Second, to design an experimental apparatus to reduce variability associated with using single static CTAP probes to measure an average pressure distribution within an RDE. The first objective is met within Section III and recommended experimental guidelines when performing an experimental EAP or NPS Method measurement to characterize RDE performance are summarized in Section VI. The second objective is met by presenting a generic design for a pressure averaging device, similar in concept to a piezometer ring, but for inherently unsteady systems, such as an RDE. The pressure averaging device was investigated using simple numerical simulations in addition to a series of experimental test campaigns. Overall, the pressure average device concept shows excellent promise with respect to reporting a representative spatially and temporally averaged static pressure given variable pressure inputs; however, further analysis from modeling and experiments are required to fully characterize the pressure averaging device.