Rotating Detonation Engine Research

Project Overview

Over three years at UCF's Propulsion & Energy Research Laboratory (PERL), led the development and testing of multiple Rotating Detonation Engine designs. This work spanned from the design and fabrication of UCF's first small-scale RDE through managing a student team for a full bipropellant gaseous methane/oxygen engine system. The research produced 5 peer-reviewed AIAA conference publications.

Small-Scale RDE — Lead Designer & Fabricator

• Led the design, fabrication, and testing of UCF's first Small-Scale Rotating Detonation Engine
• Designed and tested additively manufactured Inconel 718 engine hardware
• Investigated operability characteristics with gaseous methane/oxygen propellants (jet-in-crossflow)
• Conducted comparative analysis of exit geometries and their effect on stagnation pressure calculations
• Evaluated potential scaling effects for RDE performance extrapolation

Gaseous CH4/O2 RDE — Project Manager

• Managed student team to develop and test methane/oxygen bipropellant engine components and systems
• Created analytical model using MATLAB to predict lowest allowable reactant injection rates for detonation waves
• Wrote engine testing procedures and led testing operations
• Calibrated PT/TC DAQ systems for hot fire data acquisition

Test Campaign Infrastructure

• P&ID system ownership — propellant supply valves, regulators, and instrumentation
• High-speed camera systems — detonation wave visualization and frequency analysis
• LabVIEW DAQ — pressure and temperature data acquisition and logging
• Circuitry — ignition systems and sensor signal conditioning

Publications

• "Additively Manufactured Inconel 718 In Small-Scale Rotating Detonation Rocket Engines" — AIAA SciTech 2025
• "Investigation of the Potential Scaling Effects of Rotating Detonation Rocket Engines" — AIAA SciTech 2025
• "Comparative Analysis of Exit Geometries in Small-Scale Rotating Detonation Engines" — AIAA SciTech 2025
• "Exploring Operability and Design Characteristics of a Small-Scale Methane/Oxygen Jet-in-Crossflow Rotating Detonation Engine" — AIAA Regional Student Conferences 2024
• "Base Drag Considerations to Determine Equivalent Available Pressure in the Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine" — AIAA Aviation 2023