Abstract
A key enabler to integrate turbines downstream of rotating detonation combustors is the design of an optimal combustor-turbine passage. Precise estimates of fluctuations, losses, and heat loads are required for the turbine design as rotating detonation combustors feature transonic flow with rotating shocks moving at few kilohertz. This paper analyzes fluctuations and heat loads of the Purdue Turbine Integrated high-Pressure RDE through reactive unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) simulations. CFD++, a commercial CFD software package from Metacomp, is employed to solve the unsteady RANS equations through a one-step reaction mechanism. The inlet of the combustor is fed with a hydrogen-air mixture at mass flows of ~1 kg/s with two different back pressures to obtain supersonic and subsonic outlet flows. The mesh featured around 36 million grid points to ensure the resolving of the boundary layer. Finally, a methodology to lower computational time tenfold for the supersonic and subsonic passage is presented based on non-reacting unsteady RANS simulations.
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Braun, J., Paniagua, G., Ferguson, D. (2022). Rotating Detonation Combustor Downstream Transition Passage Design Considerations. In: King, R., Peitsch, D. (eds) Active Flow and Combustion Control 2021. AFCC 2021. Notes on Numerical Fluid Mechanics and Multidisciplinary Design, vol 152 . Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90727-3_11
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