초록 ▼

A pulse detonation engine (10) is provided with an aerovalve (14) for controlling the pressure of injected propellants (Ox, Fuel) in an open-ended detonation chamber (26). The propellants are injected at such pressure and velocity, and in a direction generally toward a forward thrust wall end (16) o

A pulse detonation engine (10) is provided with an aerovalve (14) for controlling the pressure of injected propellants (Ox, Fuel) in an open-ended detonation chamber (26). The propellants are injected at such pressure and velocity, and in a direction generally toward a forward thrust wall end (16) of the detonation chamber (26), an aerovalve (14) is formed which effectively inhibits or prevents egress of the propellant from the detonation chamber (26). A shock wave (34) formed by the injected propellant acts, after reflection by the thrust wall end (16) and in combination with the aerovalve (14), to compress and conserve, or increase, the pressure of the injected propellant. Carefully timed ignition (28) effects a detonation pulse under desired conditions of maintained, or increased, pressure. Termination of the propellant injection serves to “open” the aerovalve (14), and exhaust of the combusted propellants occurs to produce thrust. Alternate embodiments of propellant injection mechanisms (12, 112) provide pulse valves (24, 122, 124) each having a fixed slotted disk (40, 140, 240) and a rotating slotted disk (42, 142, 242) to provide the desired high speed valving of discrete pulses of propellant for injection.

대표청구항 ▼

1. A fluid injection mechanism (12; 12′; 112) including at least one pulse valve (24; 124, 122) for providing high frequency pulses of a fluid medium, comprising:a housing (50; 140, 140′; 240, 240′) containing a plenum chamber (74, 174, 274); means (76, 78, 178, 278) for supplying the fluid medium u

1. A fluid injection mechanism (12; 12′; 112) including at least one pulse valve (24; 124, 122) for providing high frequency pulses of a fluid medium, comprising:a housing (50; 140, 140′; 240, 240′) containing a plenum chamber (74, 174, 274); means (76, 78, 178, 278) for supplying the fluid medium under pressure to the plenum chamber (74, 174, 274); a pair of members (40, 42; 140, 142; 240, 242) mutually juxtaposed in close, facing relation and having respective slots (44, 46; 144, 146; 244, 246) therein, one member (42; 142; 242; 40; 140; 240) of the pair of slotted members (40, 42; 140, 142; 240, 242) being mounted to allow limited axial displacement relative to the other, one member (42, 142, 242) of the pair of slotted members (40, 42; 140, 142; 240, 242) being adapted to rotate relative to the other (40, 140, 240) to successively align and unalign, and thus port and unport, the slots (44, 46; 144, 146; 244, 246) in the two members, the pair of members (40, 42; 140, 142; 240, 242) defining a boundry of the plenum (74, 174, 274); means (72; 172) for urging the one member (42; 142; 242; 40; 140; 240) of the pair of slotted members (40, 42; 140, 142; 240, 242) capable of said limited axial displacement into close sealing relation with the other member of the pair; and means (70, 54, 52; 194) for rotatingly driving one member (42, 142, 242) of the pair relative to the other (40, 140, 240) at a predetermined speed sufficient, in combination with the slots (44, 46; 144, 146; 244, 246) in the pair of members (40, 42; 140, 142; 240, 242), to provide successive pulses of the fluid medium at a high frequency. 2. The fluid injection mechanism of claim 1 wherein said means (72; 172) for urging the one member (42; 142; 242; 40; 140; 240) of the pair of slotted members (40, 42; 140, 142; 240, 242) capable of said limited axial displacement into close sealing relation with the other member of the pair comprise spring means (72; 172).3. The fluid injection mechanism (12; 12′) of claim 2 wherein the pair of slotted members (40, 42) comprise a stationary member (40) fixedly mounted in the housing (50) and a disk (42) rotatably mounted in the housing (50) adjacent to and upstream of the stationary member (40) relative to the direction of the supply of the fluid medium to the plenum chamber (74), the rotatable disk (42) being mounted to allow said limited axial displacement whereby the pressure of the fluid medium also urges the rotatable disk (42) into close sealing relation with the stationary member (40).4. The fluid injection mechanism of claim 3 wherein the rotatable disk (42) includes an axially located, shaped seating recess (71′), and the means (70, 54, 52) for rotatingly driving the disk (42) comprise a rotary motor (52), a drive shaft (54) connected to the motor (52) and a shaped driver (70), the drive shaft (54) including a shaped recess (68) extending axially in its distal end, the proximal end of the shaped driver (70) being slidably disposed in the shaped recess (68) of the drive shaft (54) and shaped to prevent rotation relative to the drive shaft (54), the distal end of the shaped driver (70) including a shaped head (71), the shaped head (71) and the shaped seating recess of the rotatable disk (42) being cooperatively shaped for mated rotary driving engagement and limited floating axial and wobble displacement of the rotatable disk (42), and wherein the spring means (72) comprise a compression spring disposed in the shaped recess (68) of the drive shaft (54) and acting on the shaped driver to bias its shaped head (71) into the shaped seating recess of the rotatable disk (42).5. The fluid injection mechanism of claim 2 wherein the fluid medium is a gaseous propellant for a pulse detonation engine (10), the opposed facing surfaces of the fixed member (40) and the rotatable disk (42) are ground to precision flatness and finish to provide respective faying surfaces, and the number of slots (44 or 46) in at least one of the fixed member (40) and the rotatable disk (42) is at least about ten.6. The fluid injection mechanism of claim 1 wherein the frequency of the successive pulses of the fluid medium provided by the at least one pulse valve (24; 124, 122) approaches or exceeds 100 Hz.7. The fluid injection mechanism (112) of claim 1 wherein there is included a pair of annular pulse injection valves (124, 122) for respectively providing high frequency pulses of respective different fluid media to a pulse detonation engine (10), the housing (140, 140′; 240, 240′) containing a pair of respective annular plenum chambers (174, 274) disposed coaxially with the pulse detonation engine (10); the respective different fluid media being supplied to the respective plenum chambers (174, 274) via the respective supply means (178, 278); there being two pairs of annular members (140, 142; 240, 242), with the annular members of a respective pair being mutually juxtaposed in close, facing relation and having respective slots (144, 146; 244, 246) therein, one member (140, 142; 240, 242) of each pair of slotted members (140, 142; 240, 242) being mounted to allow limited axial displacement relative to the other of that pair, one member (142, 242) of each pair of slotted members (140, 142; 240, 242) being adapted to rotate relative to the other member (140, 240) of that pair to successively align and unalign, and thus port and unport, the slots (144, 146; 244, 246) in the two members of that pair, each pair of slotted members (140, 142; 240, 242) defining a boundry of the respective plenum (174, 274); each pair of slotted members (140, 142; 240, 242) having a respective means (172) for urging the one slotted member (142; 242; 140; 240) of each pair of slotted members (140, 142; 240, 242) capable of said limited axial displacement into close sealing relation with the other slotted member of that pair; and the means (194) for rotatingly driving one slotted member (142, 242) of each pair relative to the other slotted member (140, 240) of that pair at a predetermined speed is operative to drive that respective one slotted member (142, 242) of each of the two pairs (140, 142; 240, 242) in unison.8. The fluid injection mechanism (112) of claim 7 wherein the pair of annular pulse injection valves (124, 122) are ganged in axially-spaced relation by an annular injector member (120) intermediate and common to the pair of valves.9. The fluid injection mechanism (112) of claim 8 wherein the annular injection member includes a lobed mixing tang (190) to assist in directing fluid pulse flow.