Experimental investigation on wall temperature of an air-breathing kerosene/air pulse detonation combustor with impingement cooling

The design of a practical pulse detonation combustor requires the components to be capable of enduring the severe thermal environment created by repetitive detonations. In the present study, an air-breathing kerosene/air detonation combustor was designed and fabricated. And the temperature distributions on the combustor liner were measured at various operating frequencies (from 10 Hz to 50 Hz) for both natural cooling and jet impinging cooling cases. The results show that the temperature distribution on detonation combustor liner under natural cooling mode is seriously non-uniform and the hottest region appears corresponding to where transition from deflagration to detonation occurs. The temperature rise amplitude corresponding to 10 Hz increase at higher operational frequency is smaller than that at lower operational frequency. As expected, the maximum temperature on detonation combustor liner is decreased as the increase of coolant flow rate. The impinging distance between jet orifice tube and circular liner is of important influence on the reasonable temperature distribution of a cooled combustor liner.

► We make an experiment on the impingement cooling for pulse detonation combustor wall.
► The hottest region appears where transition from deflagration to detonation occurs.
► Impingement cooling structure design involves the semi-confined double walls.
► The value of zn/d impacts a complicated effect on jet array impingement.
► The present impingement cooling mode is benefit for cooling the hottest region.