Engineer Alexey Danilin from St. Petersburg has proposed a design for a rotary detonation combustion engine in which shock waves are intended to help sustain combustion and transfer energy to the rotating assembly. The invention application describes a start-up using an electric motor-generator and electrical discharges, after which the engine, according to the proposed scheme, should transition to detonating new portions of the fuel mixture without additional discharges.
The engine's core consists of a rotor with spiral channels that, as it rotates, periodically align with channels in the stationary part of the casing. Combustion chambers, equipped with fuel and oxidizer supply systems, initial ignition plugs, and nozzles, are connected to the latter. This arrangement should ensure the transfer of shock waves between the stationary and rotating sections of the gas path.
The formula provides for two mechanisms of energy transfer to the rotor. The first is associated with the interaction of shock waves with the spiral channels, and the second with the impact of directed flows of hot gases on turbine blades located outside the rotor. Exhaust gases are then discharged from the engine.
Special attention is paid to the start-up. An electric motor-generator must first spin the rotor to a speed at which the coordinated position of the channels will allow shock waves to pass between them at the right moments. Electrical discharges at the initial stage initiate the detonation of new portions of the mixture until dynamic gas compression, according to the description, creates conditions for the process to continue independently.