A Target Indirect Thrust Measurement Method of Pulse Detonation Engine

An indirect thrust measurement method based on impulse of a target plate was developed, and a new thrust measurement system (TMS) was successfully designed and constructed. A series of multi-cycle experiments on thrust measurement were conducted to investigate the feasibility of this method with the newly-built indirect TMS. The thrust measurement of PDE was made at different plate target axial positions and operating frequencies. All the experiments were conducted using gasoline as fuel and air as oxidant. The experimental results implied that the thrust of PDE by using the indirect impulse method was a function of the target plate axial position, and there existed an optimum measurement position for PDE with a diameter of 60 mm. The optimum target plate position located at 3.33. According to the experimental results, the thrusts obtained by using indirect TMS were less than the actual values, and so the observed value of thrust was modified in order to make the thrust more reliable. A relative accurate calibration formula depending on the operating frequency was found.