2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16
Space exploration is involuntarily associated with spacecraft. The heart of any launch vehicle is its engine. It must develop the first space velocity - about 7.9 km / s to deliver the astronauts into orbit, and the second space velocity to overcome the planet's gravitational field.
Achieving this is not easy, but scientists are constantly looking for new ways to solve this problem. Designers from Russia went even further and managed to develop a detonation rocket engine, the tests of which ended in success. This achievement can be called a real breakthrough in the field of space engineering.
New Features
Why are there high hopes for detonation engines? According to scientists, their power will be 10 thousand times greater than the power of existing rocket engines. At the same time, they will consume much less fuel, and their production will be distinguished by low cost and profitability. What is it withrelated?
It's all about the fuel oxidation reaction. If modern rockets use the deflagration process - slow (subsonic) combustion of fuel at constant pressure, then the detonation rocket engine functions due to the explosion, detonation of the combustible mixture. It burns at supersonic speeds, releasing huge amounts of thermal energy at the same time as the shock wave propagates.
The development and testing of the Russian version of the detonation engine was carried out by the specialized laboratory "Detonation LRE" as part of the production complex "Energomash".
The superiority of new engines
The world's leading scientists have been studying and developing detonation engines for 70 years. The main reason preventing the creation of this type of engine is the uncontrolled spontaneous combustion of fuel. In addition, the efficient mixing of fuel and oxidizer, as well as the integration of the nozzle and air intake, were on the agenda.
By solving these problems, it will be possible to create a detonation rocket engine, which, in terms of its technical characteristics, will overtake time. At the same time, scientists call its advantages:
- The ability to develop speeds in the subsonic and hypersonic ranges.
- Design many moving parts.
- Lower mass and cost of the power plant.
- High thermodynamic efficiency.
This type of engine was not produced in series. It was first tested on low-flying aircraft in 2008. The detonation engine for launch vehicles was tested for the first time by Russian scientists. That is why this event is given such great importance.
Working principle: pulse and continuous
Currently, scientists are developing installations with a pulsed and continuous workflow. The principle of operation of a detonation rocket engine with a pulsed operation scheme is based on the cyclic filling of the combustion chamber with a combustible mixture, its sequential ignition and the release of combustion products into the environment.
Accordingly, in a continuous working process, the fuel is fed into the combustion chamber continuously, the fuel burns in one or more detonation waves that continuously circulate across the flow. The advantages of such engines are:
- Single ignition of fuel.
- Relatively simple design.
- Small size and weight of units.
- More efficient use of the combustible mixture.
- Low noise, vibration and emissions.
In the future, using these advantages, a detonation liquid-propellant rocket engine of continuous operation will replace all existing installations due to its weight, size and cost characteristics.
Test detonation engine
The first tests of the domestic detonation installation took place within the framework ofproject established by the Ministry of Education and Science. A small engine with a combustion chamber 100 mm in diameter and an annular channel width of 5 mm was presented as a prototype. The tests were carried out on a special stand, indicators were recorded when working on various types of combustible mixture - hydrogen-oxygen, natural gas-oxygen, propane-butane-oxygen.
Tests of detonation rocket engine powered by oxygen-hydrogen fuel proved that the thermodynamic cycle of these units is 7% more efficient than other units. In addition, it was experimentally confirmed that with an increase in the amount of fuel supplied, thrust also increases, as well as the number of detonation waves and the rotational speed.
Analogues in other countries
Detonation engines are being developed by scientists from leading countries of the world. Designers from the USA have achieved the greatest success in this direction. In their models, they implemented a continuous mode of operation, or rotational. The US military plans to use these installations to equip surface ships. Due to their lighter weight and small size with high output power, they will help increase the effectiveness of combat boats.
A stoichiometric mixture of hydrogen and oxygen is used by an American detonation rocket engine. The advantages of such an energy source are primarily economic - oxygen burns exactly as much as is required to oxidize hydrogen. Now forThe US government spends several billion dollars to provide warships with carbon fuel. Stoichiometric fuel will reduce costs by several times.
Further development directions and prospects
New data obtained as a result of tests of detonation engines determined the use of fundamentally new methods for constructing a scheme for operating on liquid fuel. But for operation, such engines must have high heat resistance due to the large amount of thermal energy released. At the moment, a special coating is being developed that will ensure the operation of the combustion chamber under high temperature exposure.
A special place in further research is the creation of mixing heads, with which it will be possible to obtain drops of combustible material of a given size, concentration and composition. To address these issues, a new detonation liquid-propellant rocket engine will be created, which will become the basis of a new class of launch vehicles.
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