Propagating Structure Of A Microwave Driven Shock wave Inside A Tube

The thrust generation process of a microwave rocket is similar to a pulse detonation engine, and understanding the interactions between microwave plasma and shock waves is important. Shadowgraph images of the microwave plasma generated in a tube under atmospheric air were taken. The observed plasma and shock wave were propagating one-dimensionally at constant velocity inside the tube. In order to understand the flow field inside the rocket, one-dimensional CFD analysis was conducted. With the change of microwave power density, the structure of the flow field was classified into two regimes: Microwave Supported Combustion (MSC), and Microwave Supported Detonation (MSD). The structure of the MSD was different from the structure of a chemical detonation, which implied the existence of a preheating in front of the shock wave. Furthermore, the flight performance was estimated by calculating the momentum coupling coefficient. It was confirmed that the efficiency was nearly constant in the MSD regime, with the increase of microwave power density.