Application of Pulse Detonation Combustion to Turbofan Engines

Abstract

The potential performance gain of utilizing pulse detonation combustion in the bypass duct of a turbofan engine for possible elimination of the traditional afterburner was investigated in this study. A pulse detonation turbofan engine concept without an afterburner was studied and its performance was assessed. The thrust, specific fuel consumption (SFC), and specific thrust of a conventional turbofan with an afterburner and the new pulse detonation turbofan engine concept were calculated and compared. The pulse detonation device performance in the bypass duct was obtained by using multidimensional CFD analysis. The results showed that significant performance gains can be obtained by using the pulse detonation turbofan engine concept as compared to the conventional afterburning turbofan engine. In particular, it was demonstrated that for a pulse detonation bypass duct operating at a frequency of 100 Hz and higher, the thrust and specific thrust of a pulse-detonation turbofan engine can nearly be twice as much as those of the conventional afterburning turbofan engine. SFC was also shown to be reduced. The effects of fuel-air mixture equivalence ratio and partial filling on performance were also predicted. However, the interaction between pulse detonation combustion in the bypass duct and the engine fan, for potential fan stall, and engine nozzle have not been investigated in this study.