T63 Turbine Response to Rotating Detonation Combustor Exhaust Flow

This paper describes testing an axial turbine response when driven by a rotating detonation combustor (RDC). A T63 (C20-250) gas turbine is modified by replacing the combustor with a RDC. The stator vanes of the T63 are heavily instrumented for the measurement of flow enthalpy and pressure. The engine is run at multiple power levels with the stock combustor using JetA and hydrogen fuel. The engine is then modified to have an open loop configuration and is run with both the RDC and the stock combustor hardware with hydrogen fuel. Temperature pattern factor, flow unsteadiness, and turbine component efficiency are measured for all setups. High-speed pressure transducers show substantially higher unsteadiness generated by the RDC than the conventional combustor. RDC turbine component efficiencies are compared to the conventional combustor. Results suggest that RDC unsteadiness does not significantly impact turbine efficiency.