Combustion and Flame 214 (2020) 136–138

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Combustion and Flame

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/combustflame

Brief Communications

Experimental evidence of H2 /O2 propellants powered rotating

detonation waves
Jonathan Sosa a, Robert Burke a, Kareem A. Ahmed a,∗, Daniel J. Micka b, John W. Bennewitz c,
Stephen A. Danczyk c, Eric J. Paulson c, William A. Hargus, Jr c
a
Center for Advanced Turbomachinery & Energy Research, Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, University of Central Florida, Orlando
32816, FL, USA
b
Creare LLC, Hanover 03755, NH, USA
c
Air Force Research Laboratory, Edwards 93524, CA, USA

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The paper presents experimental evidence of continuous detonation in a rotating detonation rocket en-
Received 8 October 2019 gine (RDRE) powered by H2 /O2 propellants. High-speed chemiluminescence imaging is used to character-
Revised 18 December 2019
ize the detonation wave dynamics by introducing a tracer in the hydrogen fuel flow. The results show
Accepted 19 December 2019
continuous five-wave co-rotating detonations at various equivalence ratios and flow rates demonstrating
Available online 7 January 2020
the potential for H2 /O2 propellant based RDREs for upper-stage rocket engines.
© 2019 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction Although the onset of detonation is expected to occur in a ho-

The concept of rotating detonation rocket engines (RDRE) has
been a technology studied since the early observations of spinning
detonations in 1960 by Voitsekhovskii et al. with gaseous acetylene
and oxygen [1]. Around that time, the observation of transverse
combustion instabilities in rocket engines [2] led to Nicholls et al.
studying rotating detonation wave phenomenon in a rocket motor
[3] and thus, the birth of the RDRE concept. Significant work led by
the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) centers on a 5-year cam-
paign to rapidly develop the technology readiness level of RDRE’s
[4]. A critical aspect of the RDRE functionality is the fuel-oxidizer
propellant mixture. Comprehensive computational [5] and experi-
mental [6,7] work have successfully demonstrated RDRE operation.
Early RDRE studies have been largely focused on gaseous methane-
oxygen and hydrocarbons motivated by booster stage rocket sys-
tems [3,4]. However, none of the literature provides successful
RDRE detonation using H2 /O2, which is a propellant mixture rel-
evant for upper stage rocket systems.
∗
Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: Jonathan.Sosa@ucf.edu (J. Sosa), Burke.Robert@knights.ucf.edu
(R. Burke), Kareem.Ahmed@ucf.edu (K.A. Ahmed), djm@creare.com (D.J. Micka),
John.bennewitz.1@us.af.mil (J.W. Bennewitz), stephen.danczyk@us.af.mil (S.A.
Danczyk), Eric.paulson.1@us.af.mil (E.J. Paulson), William.hargus@us.af.mil (W.A.
Hargus, Jr).
mogeneous quiescent mixture of H2 /O2 [8], it is exceptionally chal-
lenging to sustain H2 /O2 detonations in a RDRE. Recently, it has
been reported that rotating detonations are not possible due to
the pre-ignition of the extremely reactive H2 /O2 mixture occurring
prior to the arrival of a detonation [9]. The high reaction temper-
atures ~3700 K and the short injection-phase ignition delay rela-
tive to the wave cycle time induces upstream and downstream de-
flagrations and detonation quenching [10]. This pre-ignition forms
product recirculation zones that disrupt the detonation and result
in deflagrations rather than detonations [11]. Additionally, inad-
equate injection mixing of H2 /O2 due to hydrogen’s high diffu-
sivity, low density, and high injection velocity [3,12,13] impacts
the local mixture composition. The detection and measurements of
H2 /O2 detonation waves in an RDRE also impose challenges due to
the small detonation cell size and potential over-illumination pro-
duced from the high number density of rotating detonation waves
in RDREs [12,13]. Furthermore, the ultraviolet (UV) emission range
(~308–320 nm wavelength) from primary combustion species are
attenuated by conventional optical systems.
The current study presents for the first time experimental ev-
idence and operability of H2 /O2 detonation in a RDRE. Sustained
detonation of H2 /O2 is achieved in an RDRE facility. The detona-
tion waves are characterized using high-speed chemiluminescence
imaging. The diagnostic approach for detecting and measuring the
detonation waves is discussed. The detonation wave speed and

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.combustflame.2019.12.031
0010-2180/© 2019 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
 J. Sosa, R. Burke and K.A. Ahmed et al. / Combustion and Flame 214 (2020) 136–138
Fig. 1. Schematic of the RDRE.
average chamber pressure in the RDRE are demonstrated for var-
ious flow conditions.
2. Experiment and diagnostics
This study was conducted at the University of Central Florida
Propulsion and Energy Research Laboratory using a 3 RDRE mod-
eled after the Air Force Research Laboratory - Edwards Air Force
Base RDRE [4,6]. The cross-sectional schematic of the RDRE is
shown in Fig. 1. The outer and inner diameters of the annulus are
76.2 mm and 66 mm, respectively, with a channel gap of 5.1 mm
and overall length of 76.2 mm. The propellant injectors incorporate
72 opposing H2 and O2 jets in an aligned impingement configura-
tion with diameters of 0.9 mm and 1.1 mm [4].
The RDRE operation involves three main flow networks. The
first being the O2 oxidizer, the second is the H2 fuel flow, and
the third is the optional CH4 tracer flow. O’Keefe Controls sonic
nozzles with throat diameters of 6.3 mm and 4.5 mm are used to
Fig. 3. RDRE operational map and detonation characteristics.
137
Fig. 2. High-speed imaging (a) H2/O2 propellants, and (b) CH∗ filtered H2/O2 pro-
pellants with CH4 tracer.
regulate the oxygen and hydrogen flow rates of the RDRE, respec-
tively. A third smaller sonic nozzle of 1.2 mm diameter is used to
meter the CH4 flow rate feeding into the H2 fuel line. Once the
flow to the RDRE has been successfully established, detonation is
initiated using a miniaturized detonation tube. Typical RDRE hot-
firings last 0.75–1.25 s and span a range of conditions including
combined propellant mass flow rates up to 1.2 lbm/s at 300 K and
equivalence ratios (ϕ ) ranging from 0.95 - 1.70.
Chemiluminescence imaging of the RDRE is used to quantify
the detonation wave characteristics, i.e., detonation wave speed
and count. High-speed imaging is recorded with a Photron SA1.1
camera equipped with a Nikon Nikkor 70–300 mm f/4–5.6 lens
(>80% transmission at 400 – 750 nm) recording at 100 kfps (10
μs exposure) with a 256 x 256 pixel at a spatial resolution of
1.85 mm/pixel. A capillary tube attenuated pressure (CTAP) static
138 J. Sosa, R. Burke and K.A. Ahmed et al. / Combustion and Flame 214 (2020) 136–138
probe was mounted 8.13 mm above the injector plate at location
P1 with dimensions l/d = 66 [14,15].
3. Results and discussion
The research explored the viability of operating a RDRE using
H2 and O2 as propellants varying equivalence ratios from ϕ = 0.95
- 1.70 and combined propellant flow rates from 0.65 – 1.16 lbm/s.
Two different imaging approaches were explored to assess the via-
bility of RDRE operation with H2 /O2 propellants. The first approach
is not successful in coherently showing the detonation waves using
OH∗ chemiluminescence from the H2 /O2 reactions due to the opti-
cal lens attenuation of the UV signal (~308–320 nm) from the OH∗ ,
as shown in Fig. 2a. The second successful imaging approach is us-
ing filtered CH∗ at 409±32 nm wavelength (Semrock FF01-409/32-
49-D-EB) to isolate the detonation wave by tracing the H2 fuel
with small amounts of CH4 (2–5% of the total mass flow). Figure 2b
clearly shows five co-rotating detonation waves traveling counter-
clockwise using this approach.
Figure 3 shows the range of conditions tested to assess deton-
ability in the RDRE. Specific cases A-E are highlighted along with
instantaneous snapshots of the detonation imaging, detonation dy-
namics, CTAP pressure measurements, and the percentage of CH4
in the combined propellant mass flow rate used for each run. Ad-
ditionally, a back-pressured case (Case ∗ ) is included for 30% block-
age of the RDRE exit area. The detonation wave propagation ve-
locity (U) is characterized using the image processing approach by
Bennewitz et al. [6]. Qualitatively, it can be noted that successful
H2 /O2 detonation was achieved from ϕ = 0.95–1.7 and total mass
flow rate of 0.65–1.16 lbm/s. For all the conditions explored, the
RDRE induced a five-wave, co-rotating detonation structure. The
detonation wave speeds vary mainly as a function of equivalence
ratio (~20 0 0 - 250 0 m/s) as expected. This is consistent with pre-
vious findings using CH4 /O2 propellants in a similar configuration
by Bennewitz et al., where wave speed was found to be highest in
the range of ϕ = 1.1~1.3 with decay towards leaner and richer mix-
tures [6]. Furthermore, the ratio of wave speed to the theoretical
1D Chapman–Jouguet (CJ) detonation propagation velocity is con-
sistent with previous results from CH4 /O2 propellant tests and in-
vestigations of air-based RDE detonation waves varying at 70%–76%
UCJ [14,15]. Across the spectrum of tested conditions, the measured
pressure is both a function of equivalence ratio and mass flow rate
through the RDRE. The pressures were lower for leaner mixtures
and nominally invariant for mixtures of ϕ > 1.00.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing finan-
cial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to
influence the work reported in this paper.
Acknowledgments
This material is based upon work supported by the Air Force
Office of Scientific Research awards 16RT0673/FA9550-16-1-0441,
and 19RT0258/FA9550-19-0322 by Program Manager: Dr. Chiping
Li, and Air Force Research Laboratory Contract FA930 0-19-P-10 03
by Dr. Stephen Danczyk (PA# 19503).
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