Date of Award
2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science in Engineering (MSE)
Department
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Committee Chair
John Bennewitz
Committee Member
Robert Frederick
Committee Member
Gabe Xu
Research Advisor
John Bennewitz
Subject(s)
Rocket engines--Design and construction, Space vehicles--Propulsion systems, Rocket engines--Combustion, Rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE)
Abstract
This thesis summarizes the performance of a small-scale rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE) using methane or hydrogen as the fuel with oxygen as the oxidizer. Specifically, a 25 mm RDRE with a 5 mm annular width and 31.2 mm length is experimentally evaluated at varying equivalence ratio for a fixed total mass flow rate of 0.076 kg/s, as well as varying total mass flow rate for fixed equivalence ratios of 1.25 and 1.00. Experimental measurements for the hot-fire tests include thrust, chamber pressure, specific impulse, and detonation mode parameters. For both sensitivity studies, hydrogen outperforms methane with a peak thrust of 128 N, while methane produces a maximum thrust of 88 N. Additionally, a characteristic timescales analysis is used to generate analytical models that are applied to this engine to understand the underlying physics governing the behavior of small-scale detonation-based engines. Overall, this work serves to demonstrate fuel sensitives and baseline scaling methodologies for small-scale RDREs.
Recommended Citation
Dave, Raj Tejas, "Exploration of various in-space fuels with differing characteristic timescales for small-scale rotating detonation rocket engines" (2025). Theses. 778.
https://louis.uah.edu/uah-theses/778