Rotating Detonation Rocket Engines:
On the way to high efficiency supersonic and hypersonic flight

Rotating detonation engine (RDE) based rocket engines are an extension to traditional liquid/liquid (bi-propellant) rocket engines. In traditional, bipropellant, rocket engines the conversion of chemical potential energy to thermal (internal) energy occurs through a constant pressure combustion process. In other words, the fuel and oxidizer are injected at a high pressure in a combustion chamber where they react with each other. The pressure is dictated by the upstream "plumbing". In an RDE, the combustion mechanism is a detonation. In the detonation process, reactants first go through one (or a series of) shock waves that raise the pressure by 20-40 times and increase the temperature by a high amount. This sudden temperature increases triggers chemical reations that, in turn, sustain the propagation of the shock wave(s). The presence of shock waves is what makes the RDE a self-pressurizing engine. Increases in thermodynamic efficiency of up to 20% have been projected by different researchers.

Presentation Material from the 8th International Interstellar Symposium
McGill University, July 10 2023, 4PM

Poster
Slideshow

Team

Professors

Charles Basenga Kiyanda, Associate Professor, Concordia University
Andrew J. Higgins, Professor, McGill University

Graduate Students

Sean Francis Connolly-Boutin, PhD Candidate, Concordia University

Undergraduate Students

Emily Doyle
Hania Fazal
George Defo
Kay Romann

Former Students

Anthony Cote
Ritchard Gilot
Mohammad Ghali
Cyril Mani
Victoria Joseph
Michael Nashen

Current and Previous Funding

National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada, Discovery Grant Program
Fonds de la Recherche Quebecois en Sciences de la Nature et Technologies, Nouveau Chercheur
Ministere de la defense Nationale du Canada, DRDC ValCartier