Experiment Research of Autonomous Driving Valve for Pulse Detonation Rocket Engine

As pulse detonation engine(PDE) does not need compression mechanisms such as compressors because self-sustained detonation waves are able to compress propellant gases by their incident shock waves, the PDE can have a simple straight-tube structure. In this study, we propose an autonomous driving valve system of the PDE, which fill premixed gases into the PDE tubes at high frequency with high mass flow rate. The proposed valve is composed of only three parts: a piston, a cylinder, and a spring. This valve system can produce intermittent flow at high mass flow rate, and also can keep stable reciprocal motion by using the propellant-gas enthalpy. When the cylinder content product is assumed to be constant, experimental results of the mass flow rate were approximately equal to the calculation model. We confirmed the autonomous driving valve performance by experiments, and concluded that this extremely simple valve with no electrical power and controller can be used as the PDE propellant supply system.