Article

2020-05-08 Science & Technology

[ScienceAlert] A type of rocket engine once thought impossible has just been fired up in the lab. Engineers have built and successfully tested what is known as a rotating detonation engine, which generates thrust via a self-sustaining wave of detonations that travel around a circular channel.

As this engine requires far less fuel than the combustion engines currently used to power rockets, it could eventually mean a more efficient and much lighter means of getting our ships into space.

"The study presents, for the first time, experimental evidence of a safe and functioning hydrogen and oxygen propellant detonation in a rotating detonation rocket engine," said aerospace engineer Kareem Ahmed of the University of Central Florida.

The idea of the rotating detonation engine goes back to the 1950s. It consists of a ring-shaped - annular - thrust chamber created by two cylinders of different diameters stacked inside one another, creating a gap in between.

Gas fuel and oxidiser are then injected into this chamber through small holes and ignited. This creates the first detonation, which produces a supersonic shockwave that bounces around the chamber. That shockwave ignites the next detonation, which ignites the next, and so forth, producing an ongoing supersonic shockwave to generate thrust.

This should produce more energy for less fuel compared to combustion, which is why the US Military is investigating and funding it; this new research was funded by the US Air Force, and it's not the only such project the military are looking into.
Much more at the link.

Posted by Deacon Blues 2020-05-08 07:45|| || Front Page|| [11133 views ] Top

#1 Cool concept, I can think of several other uses for this technology.

Posted by Seeking Cure For Ignorance 2020-05-08 10:35|| 2020-05-08 10:35|| Front Page Top

#2 Quick! Transfer the technology to China!

Posted by gorb 2020-05-08 10:38|| 2020-05-08 10:38|| Front Page Top

#3 No rapid disassembly required.

Posted by Skidmark 2020-05-08 10:45|| 2020-05-08 10:45|| Front Page Top

#4 Technology B Hard™! They are still trying to make the Aerospike engine work. Fusion Power is still the "Energy of the Future™", as well.

Posted by magpie 2020-05-08 16:35|| 2020-05-08 16:35|| Front Page Top

#5 /\ [Quora.com] Why has it been so hard for China to build aircraft jet engines?
Even if the Chinese steal, *ahem*, "research" one branch of technology there are still all of the other ones needed.

Posted by magpie 2020-05-08 16:39|| 2020-05-08 16:39|| Front Page Top

#6 Quality is a cultural thing in some ways. People who spit everywhere they go and eat things the rest of us walk around or otherwise avoid have a different idea of quality.

As they say in Texas "We know quality when we step in it..."

Posted by M. Murcek 2020-05-08 17:56|| 2020-05-08 17:56|| Front Page Top

#7 True but I've been around some crude MF'ers (even more than me) that did exceptional work, technical and manual,- that did their work the way they did because it gave them pleasure to do it well. Which is a work ethic that has to be taught by example, not lecture.
At my retirement party (from my first, but not last, job, my two sons agreed on what they remember most about my work? "He got up at 3:50AM or 9 PM, or whatever hour, but he went to work, every day". That felt good

Posted by Frank G 2020-05-08 18:22|| 2020-05-08 18:22|| Front Page Top

#8 This thread reminds me of the old saying , "Variety is the spice of life, but monotony brings home the bacon. "

Posted by Thaith Elmeresing6163 2020-05-08 18:40|| 2020-05-08 18:40|| Front Page Top

#9 It does

Posted by Frank G 2020-05-08 20:13|| 2020-05-08 20:13|| Front Page Top

#10 "He got up at 3:50AM or 9 PM, or whatever hour, but he went to work, every day".

A heroic thing, in my book. I'm glad my Dad was able to do that for us. Sometimes what you show you kids is more important than what you say to them.

Posted by SteveS 2020-05-08 21:44|| 2020-05-08 21:44|| Front Page Top

#11 It does. I'm not heroic, I did my job. That example means something

Posted by Frank G 2020-05-08 23:55|| 2020-05-08 23:55|| Front Page Top

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