Experimental study on operating characteristics of solid rocket ramjet rotating detonation engine

To further enhance the performance of solid rocket ramjet engines, this study applies rotating detonation combustion to the afterburner of a solid rocket ramjet and investigates the operating characteristics of a solid rocket ramjet rotating detonation engine using a direct-connect experimental system. The experiments were conducted under three operating conditions, using fuel-rich gas generated by oxygen-poor solid propellant as fuel, with the equivalence ratio adjusted by controlling the air mass flow rate. The rotating detonation combustor adopts a hollow configuration, with a single experimental duration of approximately 5 s. The results show that, under suitable conditions, the fuel-rich gas can auto-ignite and form stable single-wave detonation without secondary ignition. The effects of air mass flow rate-equivalence ratio on rotating detonation combustion were investigated. As the air mass flow rate increased from 1184.63 g/s to 1550.66 g/s and the equivalence ratio decreased from 1.28 to 0.98, the combustor pressure increased from 0.186 MPa to 0.208 MPa, the combustor temperature decreased from 1760 K to 1614 K, and the detonation wave velocity decreased from 1750 m/s to 1682 m/s.