Thrust - Performance Test of Ethylene-Oxygen Single-Tube Pulse Detonation Rocket

The pulse detonation engine (PDE) has recently expected as a new aerospace propulsion system. The PDE system has high thermal efficiency because of its constant-volume combustion and its simple tube structure. We measured thrust of single-tube pulse detonation rocket (PDR) by two methods using the PDR-Engineering Model (full scale model) for ground testing. The first involved measuring the displacement of the PDR-EM by laser displacement meter, and the second involved measuring the time-averaged thrust by combining a load cell and a spring-damper system. From these two measurements, we obtained 130.1 N of time-averaged thrust, which corresponds to 321.2 sec of effective specific impulse (ISP). As well, we measured the heat flux in the wall of PDE tubes. The heat flux was approximately 400 ㎾/$m^2$. We constructed the PDR-Flight Mode] (PDR-FM). In the vertical flight test in a laboratory, the PDR-FM was flying and keeping its altitude almost constant during 0.3 sec.