WEST-EAST HIGH SPEED FLOW FIELD CONFERENCE 19-22, November 2007 Moscow, Russia NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF THE CONTINUOUS ROTATING HYDROGEN-OXYGEN DETONATION WITH A DETAILED CHEMICAL MECHANISM Dmitry M. Davidenko*, Iskender Gökalp* and Alexey N. Kudryavtsev ** *Institut de Combustion, Aérothermique, Réactivité et Environnement, CNRS UPR 3021, Orléans 45071, France davidenko@cnrs-orleans.fr , gokalp@cnrs-orleans.fr **Khristianovich Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk 630090, Russia alex@itam.nsc.ru Key words: chemically reacting flows, detonation engine performance, annular combustion chamber. Abstract. Numerical simulations of a transverse detonation wave continuously rotating in an annular combustion chamber are performed. The investigation is aimed at a better understanding of the processes in the continuously operating detonation wave rocket engine fed with stoichiometric hydrogen-oxygen mixture. The two-dimensional Euler equations for chemically reacting flow are solved using a high-order weighted essentially non-oscillatory scheme coupled with a semi-implicit Runge-Kutta time integration method. Finite-rate chemistry is described by a kinetic model including 6 species and 7 reversible reactions. The flow structure in the combustion chamber is investigated and the dependence of main flow characteristics and combustion chamber performance on the injection total pressure, chamber length and azimuthal period is studied. 1. INTRODUCTION Very high energy release rate, which can be achieved in detonations, for many years attracts attention of scientists and engineers to possible practical application of this phenomenon. As was shown for the first time by Ya. B. Zel’dovich [1], the detonation regime of combustion is also more efficient thermodynamically than the deflagration under the same initial conditions. One can hope that development of detonation-based fuel-burning devices will eventually lead to the design of more cost-effective and compact engines for sub-orbital spacecraft and other high-speed vehicles. In recent years, significant efforts were undertaken for a detailed research on the concept of Pulse Detonation Engine (PDE), a device which creates propulsion by burning the fuel in a combustion chamber where a traveling detonation wave is periodically initiated [2]. Nevertheless, it seems that, owing to the difficulties of fast exhaust of the combustion products and recharging of the combustion chamber with