A rotating detonation engine (RDE) at the Air Force Research Lab (AFRL) has been modified to allow optical access to the annulus while in operation. High speed video of chemiluminescence was taken for three operating conditions to characterize the RDE flowfield. Two-dimensional representations of the entire RDE are presented to show basic flow structure. Detonation height, detonation angle, oblique shock wave angle, shear layer angle, and contact surface angle were measured. Average value for each of these measurements did not change drastically over the range tested, but large deviations of the values were observed. These considerable deviations of the flowfield point toward device variation as a major factor to be understood.
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