Heat Flux Measurements in a small-scale Oxygen-Hydrogen Rotating Detonation Rocket Combustor

This study investigated heat flux measurement in a small-scale capacitively cooled hydrogen-oxygen Rotating Detonation Rocket Combustor (RDRC). For the heat flux measurement, the combustor’s outer body was equipped with clusters of thermocouples, to measure the heat flux via the gradient method. A total number of 25 different test conditions have been investigated. The mass flow rate was varied from 45 to 70 gs-1. Ratios of oxidizer to fuel (ROF) of 5.8 and 7.2 were tested. Test durations reached from 0.7 to 1.5 s. Additionally, several tests were conducted with an Aerospike nozzle with a constriction ratio of 2. In some of the tests, unexpected behavior of the measured temperatures was visible. These tests were excluded from the analysis. From the remaining tests a strong coupling of heat flux with mass flow rate was found. With higher mass flow rates, higher heat fluxes were measured. The highest heat fluxes were measured in the cluster nearest to the injector. The measured values reached up to 7 MW/m2 at 0.7s and up to 8.9 MW/m2 at 1.5s test duration.