Formation of multiheaded rotating detonation

The flow in a combustion chamber in the form of an annular gap between plates with multi-headed rotating detonation has been studied numerically. It is assumed that a homogeneous propane-air mixture with given stagnation parameters enters the combustion chamber through elementary nozzles evenly filling the outer bounding ring. The gas-dynamic parameters of the mixture are determined as functions of the stagnation parameters and static pressure in the gap. The conditions for the formation of a given number of waves in the multi-headed detonation wave related to the dimensions of the combustion chamber and parameters of the initiators are obtained. The maximum number of waves for given dimensions of the combustion chamber are established. The existence of the maximum critical number of waves in multi-headed detonation is associated with blocking of the supply of the combustible mixture. Under the considered geometrical parameters of the flow region, one to eight rotating detonation waves are formed. It is found that in the case of an uneven arrangement of initiators, there is gradual alignment of the mutual angles between the waves making up the multi-headed detonation. Calculations were performed on the Lomonosov supercomputer at the Moscow State University using an original software package implementing a modified Godunov method and one-step reaction kinetics.