Evaluation of OH Emission for Determining Operation of a Rotating Detonation Engine
This work explores emission spectroscopy of an intermediate species of combustion as a diagnostics for the study of rotating detonation engines (RDEs), and in particular OH* emission in hydrogen/air operation, to evaluate combustion regions and modes. These measurements support the existence of non-ideal combustion before and after the wave passage, which critically impacts the stability and properties of the detonation wave. In addition, these measurements help the identification and understanding of the secondary wave systems that are found to affect the detonation wave, for example by affecting the spatio-temporal distribution of non-ideal combustion. In particular, time-resolved OH* emission was used to estimate the cycle phase-average distribution of the heat release over a detonation wave cycle. The analysis of the representative OH* emission profile, taken to be representative of the phase-average distribution of heat release, support the identification of non-ideal combustion regions in the cycle and the effects secondary waves have on the detonation wave.