Ikkoh Funaki

A coupled cylindrical rotating detonation engine (RDE) with two cylindrical RDEs (both combustors had a combustor inner diameter of 23 mm and an axial length of 30 mm) placed next to each other was tested for rocket clustering application. The objective of the experiment was to achieve two-engine synchronized initiation with a single igniter. Experiments were conducted on the inner wall of the combustors with different connecting-hole diameters and wall heights to evaluate the ignition delay time, combustion mode, and propulsion performance. The propellants were gaseous ethylene and oxygen, and experiments were conducted under constant conditions of mass flow rate ([Formula: see text]), equivalence ratio ([Formula: see text]), and backpressure (approximately 10 kPa). When the two combustion chambers were completely separated by a wall, ignition occurred with a time delay of 260 ms in the chamber without an igniter. However, when a large hole ([Formula: see text] diameter) was placed in the wall separating the two combustion chambers, synchronous initiation was successful. Synchronous initiation was also successful when the wall height was lowered (7-mm height). Under both conditions, the same level of specific impulse was achieved as for RDEs operating at the same mass flux.

There are few experimental studies on rotating detonation engines (RDEs) with liquid propellants. This study reveals the static thrust performance of a cylindrical RDE with ethanol and liquid nitrous oxide as propellants under atmospheric pressure. This RDE had an inner diameter of 40 mm, a maximum combustor length of 230 mm, a nozzle contraction ratio of 1.7, and a nozzle expansion ratio of 9.1. Nineteen experiments were conducted at total mass flow rates of [Formula: see text], mixture ratios of 3.6–5.9, and combustion pressures of 0.35–0.46 MPa, resulting in a maximum detonation velocity of [Formula: see text] (approximately 80% of the theoretical detonation velocity, [Formula: see text]), maximum thrust at sea level of 294 N, and maximum specific impulse at sea level of 148 s. In addition, the maximum characteristic exhaust velocity, [Formula: see text], was [Formula: see text], which was 99% of the theoretical value. The characteristic length of the combustion chamber at this time was 0.15 m. Since conventional rocket combustion requires 1.57 m to achieve the same [Formula: see text] efficiency, this study shows that detonation combustion can reduce the combustor size by 88%.

Magsail is a space propulsion system using the interactions between the solar wind and the magnetic field generated by the onboard coils. Magnetoplasma sail is a propulsion system that increases thrust by expanding the magnetosphere through plasma injection from the spacecraft. There are two mechanisms on the magnetospheric inflation: method using frozen-in of magnetic field to carry magnetic field lines by high dynamic pressure plasma and method using the diamagnetic current by thermal plasma, which is called the ring current. We investigated the effect of the dynamic pressure and thermal pressure on the MPS thrust performance used electromagnetic hydrodynamic simulation. It was shown that the ring current is enhanced by adding dynamic pressure to the thermal plasma and increases thrust gain. The high thrust gain over 2.25 was obtained at β_th = 0.5 - 2 and β_k = 4 - 8. However, the thrust is reduced because the super magneto acoustic wave region is generated in the magnetosphere, which prevents the propagation of thrust in large β conditions. The wide parameter survey reveals injection plasma parameter regions where thrust reduction is restrained and high thrust gain is obtained.