Conventional / deflagration
Subsonic flame.
Heat release occurs through a comparatively slow flame, typically approximated as constant-pressure combustion in the core cycle.
Technology
Engineering the wave, the chamber and the control system.
Our work spans pressure-gain combustion, annular chamber design, injection, thermal management and in-engine thrust vectoring.
Combustion physics
Deflagration and detonation are not the same cycle.
The difference begins with how the reaction front moves and how pressure changes through combustion.
Pressure gain / detonation
Shock-coupled wave.
A shock wave and reaction zone move together at supersonic speed, producing a pressure rise that can improve the thermodynamic cycle.
Programme 01 · Primary
Rotating detonation engine.
One or more detonation fronts travel continuously around an annular chamber while fresh mixture enters from the injector plane and products discharge axially.
Feed a controlled fresh layer.
Fuel and oxidiser enter through an injector system designed to refill the chamber while limiting upstream propagation and pressure coupling.
Establish a self-sustaining detonation.
The initiation system creates the conditions required for a detonation front to form and transition into rotating operation.
Maintain the wave around the annulus.
The chamber geometry, injection state and chemistry must support stable propagation without destructive mode changes or injector starvation.
Convert chamber pressure into thrust.
Products leave the chamber axially and expand through the downstream geometry, creating the usable momentum flux.
RDE system stack
The engine is more than the annulus.
A useful demonstrator requires the combustion chamber, feed, ignition, cooling, instrumentation and control architecture to function together.
01
Injector system
Mass-flow distribution, pressure isolation, mixture preparation and refill dynamics.
02
Chamber design
Annulus geometry, wave mode, material loads and downstream expansion.
03
Thermal system
Wall heat flux, cooling strategy, material selection and test duration.
04
Control & data
Initiation, sensing, pressure mapping, thrust measurement and closed-loop research.
In-engine control
Use the combustion field as part of the control system.
Our proposed vectoring approach uses controlled injection and chamber-pressure asymmetry to influence the direction of the resultant exhaust momentum.
- Control input
- Azimuthal injection distribution
- Intermediate state
- Chamber-pressure asymmetry
- Target output
- Directed thrust response
- Development status
- Research and numerical validation
Vector-control conceptResearch architecture
Programme 02 · Future
Pulse detonation engine.
A pulse detonation engine fills, detonates and purges a chamber repeatedly. Its value lies in mechanical simplicity and mission-specific pulsed operation.
Fill.
Introduce the reactive mixture into the chamber while managing residual products from the preceding cycle.
Initiate.
Create a repeatable detonation using an ignition or pre-detonation system appropriate to the chamber scale.
Exhaust.
Allow the high-pressure products to discharge and generate impulse before the next fill sequence begins.
Repeat.
Control cycle frequency and phasing to create the desired time-averaged thrust and vehicle response.
Technology roadmap
Evidence before scale.
Each stage is intended to retire a specific class of technical risk before moving into larger and more integrated hardware.
01
Computational model
Wave initiation, injector coupling, chamber pressure, heat release and sensitivity studies.
02
Cold-flow hardware
Validate feed distribution, pressure losses, instrumentation and manufacturing choices.
03
Hot-fire demonstrator
Measure detonation mode, thrust, thermal loading and repeatability.
04
Integrated flight unit
Develop cooling, packaging, control and vehicle interfaces for a flight demonstration.