Investigation of Liquid Fuel Refill Dynamics in a Rotating Detonation Combustor using Megahertz Planar Laser-Induced Fluorescence

Direct imaging of liquid fuel injection is performed within an optically accessible rotating detonation combustor (RDC) using planar laser-induced fluorescence (PLIF) to spatio-temporally resolve the highly dynamic spray characteristics at rates up to 1 MHz. The RDC is operated on air and hydrogen to sustain a stable, cyclically propagating detonation wave with cycle periods of up to ∼250 μs. One of the hydrogen fuel injection sites is replaced with a liquid jet to introduce a diesel spray as a fuel surrogate to enable tracer-free fluorescence excitation using the 355 nm third-harmonic output of a burst-mode Nd:YAG laser. The time-resolved PLIF measurements reveal the evolution of the highly unsteady spray, including the dwell period after the arrival of the detonation wave, the jet recovery, breakup and entrainment into the supersonic crossflow of air, propagation into the detonation chamber, and interaction with the detonation wave. Following passage of the detonation wave, the spray characteristics reveal significant changes in the momentum flux ratio between the liquid and air streams, altering the jet trajectory and temporarily halting fuel delivery to the detonation channel. This temporary cessation of fuel spray injection into the combustor is quantified, along with the fill rate as a function of time. As the injection system recovers, the fuel spray eventually returns to a quasi-steady position prior to the arrival of the detonation wave, allowing qualitative comparisons with theoretical jet trajectories for a range of air mass-flux conditions. These data, enabled by ultra-high-speed PLIF imaging, represent some of the first detailed measurements for characterizing and quantifying the interactions of liquid jets and detonations in an operating RDC.