ON THE UTILIZATION OF THE KINETIC ENERGY OF PULSED DETONATION PRODUCTS

Abstract

The possibility of utilizing the kinetic energy of detonation products by a pulse turbine of the simplest water-wheel-like design during the implementation of the Zel£dovich thermodynamic cycle with pulse detonation combustion of fuel is investigated computationally and experimentally. The coe©cients of utilization of the momentum and kinetic energy of detonation products in the pulse turbine with unoptimized mass and dimensions are found to be as low as 8%€16%. To improve the e©ciency of the pulse turbine, it is necessary to take measures for eliminating unnecesary re§ections of shock waves (SWs), to select the optimal mass and dimensions of the turbine rotor and the number of blades, to pro¦le the blades and to select the optimal angle of attack, to optimize the size of the lateral gap between the rotor and the housing, and to select the optimum location of the exhaust duct. It is expected that the e©ciency of a combined cycle including the optimized pulse turbine and conventional gas and/or steam turbines attached to the exhaust duct could be higher than the e©ciency of a conventional hybrid cycle by at most 9%.