An assessment of techniques for calculating rdes

Rotating Detonation Engines have been extensively researched using a multitude of techniques for the kinetic mechanism, turbulence, turbulence-combustion interaction, the spatial and temporal numerical procedure, and the use of Euler or the Navier-Stokes equations. However, there seems to be no agreement presently as to the optimal procedure and model to use. In this work, a comparison of various modeling options is presented for the physics, chemistry, and numerical modeling of the RDE problem. Differing performance of several kinetic mechanisms has been observed and the two spatial numerical schemes investigated – the Weighted Essentially-Non-oscillatory (WENO) and MUSCL – give significantly different results. In this limited study, Euler and Navier-Stokes give results that are not significantly different, although the real issue in this case is the level of numerical dissipation, since no truly inviscid solutions to the flow equations are physically or numerically realizable.