NationStates Jolt Archive

"We now interupt this regularly scheduled program with this breaking news."

"We now take you live to the Dodekistan Research Institute where we have Dr. Isaac Hanes speaking."

Dr. Hanes takes the podium.
"Thank you. I am speaking to you, on behalf of my research team to announce that we have recieved funding, and are currently in the process of developing pulse detonation engine technology. This is a long term project, as our timetables are written in years. We believe we will succeed in creating a fully working pulse detonation engine in 6 years. I'll take questions now."

"Dr. Hanes, explain how you think pulse detonation engines will work."

"Good question. Take a look at this chart.

http://www.grc.nasa.gov/WWW/AERO/base/images/pdet.gif

In theory, they rely on something similar to what happens in the cylinders of your car. First, high speed air flows into a tube, where it is mixed with the fuel. When the fuel/air ratio is optimal, a detonation occurs. This is what produces the thrust of the engine. The detonation pulls in air faster and faster, and the cycle starts over again."

"What is the advantage?"

"Well, for one it is possible to achieve much higher speeds more efficiently with this kind of engine. Pound for pount, these engines should produce much more thrust than a conventional jet engine, because the detonation wave is much more powerful."

"How do you plan to apply this technology?"

He nodded to a man in a black suit and tie to his left, who grabbed the reporter and dragged her out of the briefing room.

"That's classified. I think I've answered all the questions. I thank you for your time."

We in Kaukolastan, as allies of Dodekistan, wish to pledge our support and funding to this project. We see many benefits to this tech... We are sending some aerospace engineers to aide you, and an initial grant of 45 billion for research.

You know what? If you're going to do Pulse-Det technology, why don't you hybrid it with normal jet engines?

An officer in the Mossad watches a rebroadcast of the PDE announcement from a satellite television channel. He records Dodekistan's reported research into the technology and files a report suggesting that information be sought about the progress of the nation's PDE research advancement.

It was of clear concern for such smaller powers to be researching and possibly applying such technology, which had long been a secret to Western Asian aeronautical successes and advancement.

The email is sent out and is later processed, its suggestion is acted upon as agents are sent to seek information on the progress of Dodekistan's research.

OOC: Ray, Shhhh. Don't give him any ideas :wink:

"Dr. Hanes, you have a telephone call."

"Thank you, Mary, patch it in." He picked up the phone. "Yes?"

"This is accounting. Sir, we have just been wired 45 Billion dollars from Kaukolistan."

"Did you say billion? With a b?"

"Yes sir."

"Increadible."

*Knock knock*

"Come in." The door opens, and 10 men, dressed in white button up, short sleeve shirts walk in.

"Hello sir, we have been sent here from Kaukolistan. We would like to know how we can help you."

Dr. Hanes drops his coffee cup, and it shatters on the floor.

"I'd send you 100 virgins, President Drakk, but I seem to be fresh out!"

Ok, have fun!

((*slaps a piece of duct tape over Ray's mouth*))

You know what? If you're going to do Pulse-Det technology, why don't you hybrid it with normal jet engines?

OOC:
In all honesty, I considered that, but that would require a number of things. First of all, miniaturizing the whole assembly so it would fit in the bypass part of the turbofan engine. That in itself would be very difficult and require a lot more time to accomplish. Second, it doesn't really offer that significant of an advantage over regular pulse-det engines. Sure, your turbine would be going faster, but you're not getting the fuel consumption benifit of straight-up pulse-det. Turbine based engines can only go so fast before they run into flow problems. But thanks for the suggestion :D .

Second, it doesn't really offer that significant of an advantage over regular pulse-det engines.

OOC: Correction. There is an advantage in thrust produced by hybrid pulse dets. However, at this stage the miniaturization process would be far too complicated. Also, while the net thrust is greater, there is still the flow problem associated with turbine-based engines.

You know what? If you're going to do Pulse-Det technology, why don't you hybrid it with normal jet engines?

OOC:
In all honesty, I considered that, but that would require a number of things. First of all, miniaturizing the whole assembly so it would fit in the bypass part of the turbofan engine. That in itself would be very difficult and require a lot more time to accomplish. Second, it doesn't really offer that significant of an advantage over regular pulse-det engines. Sure, your turbine would be going faster, but you're not getting the fuel consumption benifit of straight-up pulse-det. Turbine based engines can only go so fast before they run into flow problems. But thanks for the suggestion :D .

OOC: The current plans for distribution and integration generally depend upon lower-efficiency hybrid engines as stepping stones to the high-efficiency all-PD engines. There are also some problems with using pure PDEs in commercial airplanes at low velocities (ie, during landing and take-off)...some stability vs. vibration issues have also been presented.

The main purpose of PDE/Hybrids is to increase the efficiency of normal engines (extending range and top speed), rather than to reach vastly higher speeds.

1 Year Later:

"Dr. Hanes, we're ready to test fire."

"Very good. Proceed."

From behind the 4 inch thick plate glass window, the researchers observed their creation. It looked like a very thick car exaust pipe sticking out of a much larger tube. The larger tube had a thick steel gasket on each end, fastened on by gigantic bolts. Coming out of various places on the assembly were various wires and hoses and a large metal pipe which fed air to the mechanism.

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/images/space/space0903pulse_A1_410.jpg

"Begin test in 5...4...3...2...1"

The monotonous drone of the computers in the room was immedietly replaced by a thunderious roar. The muffler-like device had flames shooting 6 feet out of the end. Even through the concrete encased room with thick glass, the sound pressure was unbarable. Dr. Hanes walked up to the white board and wrote, "TURN THE DAMN THING OFF!!!" The assistant obeyed, and Dodekistan's first test of pulse detonation technology ended in a success.

"Gentlemen, you can go home for the day. Excellent work. We are 6 months ahead of schedule, thanks to the donations of Kaukolistan. Tomarrow morning we will start the second phase of our project."

Year 2:

Dr. Hanes and his research team sit down at a conference table, Hanes at the head of the table.

"Gentlemen, we have been working on the noise problem for 6 months. We have yet to solve it. So, we are going to sit here in this room until we do. Any ideas, no matter how crazy, I want to hear them. We are falling behind schedule, and you know how President Hetfield is about being behind schedule."

"Sir, the food you requested is here."

"Good, bring it in." Two large carts, one with 10 pots of coffee, and the other with several plates of doughnuts, are wheeled in. "We're back to the hayday of engineering boys, lets fix our problem."

12 hours later...

Every white board, every piece of paper, every plate, napkin and most of the engineers hands and arms are covered with ink from diagrams of their ideas. Only one pot of coffee is left, and the doughnuts are long gone. The team is exausted.

"Sir, can we go home. It's 9'o clock. I really have to..."

Hanes slams his fist on the table, knocking one of the many coffee cups off of the table, smashing it. "NO DAMMIT! YOU MAY NOT LEAVE! We aren't leaving this room until we have something that will work. I'll have some pizzas brought in here. Be back in a second."

The men look around at each other, questioning the possiblity of finishing this project on time. One of the engineers seems very affixated with the coffee mug that shattered on the floor.

"What are you staring at Scott?"

"The cup. Look at its edges. They are jagged."

"Yeah, so what?"

"The jagged edges help dampen the sound on..."

"...commercial airliners! Scott that's brillant!" The team jumps to their feet, and surrounds Scott's laptop computer.

"Rolls Royce did this a few years ago to their commerical airline engines. They used special geometry on the outlet nozzles of the engine, which disrupted the sound waves being emitted, making it much quieter. Check it out."

http://images.google.com/images?q=tbn:t7cWbky8vIQC:www.aerotechnews.com/starc
OOC: Sorry for the small picture, my computer is being ghey.

"If we did the same thing to our outlet pipes, we could easily get the noise to a bearable level."

Hanes entered the room.

"Guys, the pizza's are on their way." The men looked up with boyish grins on their faces. "What?"

One week later...

"Scott, if this works, you get that corner office you've always wanted."

"Trust me boss, it WILL work." The men all stood behind Scott and Hanes, waiting for the test to begin.

"Go ahead Scott, start the test." He flipped the red plastic over the button, and pressed it, initiating the test. The sound of compressors sucking air from outside into the assembly, which at this point had expanded to 5 outlet nozzles instead of 1, filled the test chamber. Suddently, a 4 foot jet of flame shot from each of the pipes, initiating the engines. All the engineers whinced, expecting to hear the defening growl of 5 highly tuned pulse detonation nozzles firing. Instead, they heard a much softer sound that resembled that of a big block Chevy at full RPM.

http://www.popsci.com/popsci/images/space/space0903pulse_A4.jpg

Immedietly, cheers and fist pumps filled the air.

"Congradulations Scott. You've moved out of the cubicle farm. Go home, your things will be there in the morning." Hanes turned to the group. "Settle down settle down. Go home guys, get some rest. Tomarrow we start integrating this engine into a real plane."

http://www.pr.afrl.af.mil/divisions/prt/pde/Images/POD/b_partial_team.jpg
Caption: The design team poses before the test.
OOC: Holy shizznit that picture is big!!

"Three years, doctor. Three years and we have a working prototype! I can't believe it," Scott, now chief design engineer, says. He is standing next to Dr. Hanes in the lab where the original test took place, watching the bustling technitions preparing their creation.

"No, Scott, I knew all along that we would succeed."

"But in three years?"

"No, not in three years. The President will be pleased."

A woman over the intercom system speaks.

"Test starting in 2 minutes. All personel immedietly leave the laboratory."

"Ok, doctor, looks like we get to see if this thing really does work." The two hurried into the concrete slabbed room, where they observed through CCTV the test.

"5...4...3...2...1...initiate test."

The engine sputtered, barked, and, as usual, flames 6 feet long jumped out of the back. Cheers filled the room, but Scott was unsatisfied. Something caught his attention.

"Dr. Hanes, take a look at 4th pipe. It's blinking. Oh shit! It's mistimed! If the vaccuum it pulls is too great it'll throw off the balence of the engine and destroy it! SHUT IT OFF! SHUT IT OFF NOW!"

It was too late. The 4th pipe started vibrating, and the harmonic nature of the vibration cascaded through the whole assembly. The pipe shot off, causing the fuel line to spray highly volatile nitromethane fuel over the red hot pipes. The fire was undetectable to the naked eye, being that nitromethane burns clear, but the thermal cameras showed bright black splotches over the whole engine.

"The damn things on fire," Scott shouted. No one heard him. They were still all celebrating their victory over the odds. That is until the floor shook with the massive mechanical explosion caused by the vibration. The engineers in the room heard pieces of metal slamming against the cement wall, obviously tearing huge gouges in it. The CCTV was wiped out by the blast.

"Oh my God," Hanes exclaimed. "What the hell just happened."

Scott grudginly sat down in front of the fuzzy screen of the CCTV monitor. "We killed it. We have to start over."

The engineers slowly opened the door of the room. What they saw amazed them. The only thing that was left of the test stand was the red hot pieces of the mounting brackets. On the side of the concrete wall that protected them from the blast was a steel gasket, jammed into the wall. The detonation pipes, which were once straight, were bended around on of the steel I-beams that supported the lab. The metal walls of the lab were torn to shreds in a 20 foot radius of the test stand, and the entire lab was pockmarked with holes, ranging from 1 inch to 1 foot in diameter where exiting scraps of the engine impacted and penetrated.

"Jesus Christ. This is indescribable."

From inside the room, racket from Scott breaking an office chair could be heard.

"Ok. I want best guesses as to what happened yesterday," Hanes asked from behind the conferance table the team was sitting at.

"At T + 5 seconds sensor e picked up a slight oscillation of pipe 4. I ran a diagonostic on the data from the sensor, and it said that, like Scott suspected, the detonation was mistimed, constructively interfering with the oscillation, causing the catastrophic failure."

"Ok. How did it get mistimed?"

"Well, doctor, these things are timed in microseconds. Being off even one or two microseconds when you're dealing with gas that is travelling at mach 5 can be a serious problem."

"How can we make it more accurate? And I don't want to hear that we can't."

"We don't need to. And, we really can't. There's another way though," Scott said. "We have to allow a certain amount of mistiming. Remember, masters and Ph.D aeronautical engineers aren't going to be working on this thing in the field. Techs are. They aren't going to be able to keep it working to that time tolerence. What we need is a way to dampen the vibration so it doesn't blow the damn thing to pieces when its mistimed."

"So what do you suggest Scott? You can see the data. This is a harmonic sequence from calculus 4. As time progresses the oscillations get larger."

"Yeah, I know. But there is a way we can transfer the oscillation. What if we had something like a fork, isolated from the rest of the engine entirely, that is suspended just above the end of the pipe. It'll be like when you touch a vibrating guitar string with your finger. The momentum transfered from the string vibrating to your finger will make it stop it from vibrating."

"Great idea. We could attatch it to the plane itself. For each pipe, have a fork to dampen the vibration!"

"So," Dr. Hanes inquired, "is this what we're going to do?" The heads around the table, after mentally questioning each other, nodded in approval.

"Ok then. Lets start rebuilding the engine."

6 months later

"Ok, we installed our dampening forks, and are ready to begin the test, doctor."

"Clear the room everyone." The workers obediently walked into the now repaired cement structure. The lab, while still with some scars of the accident, such as a pool of metal which was melted by the fire and fused to the floor, was largely absent of reminders of the dangers of this technology. They no longer used nitromethane fuel, instead opting for less exotic JP-9. In the later stages, it was important to start making the configuration more able to integrate itself into practical application.

"5...4...3...2...1...initiate test."

The engine made its standard sputter and pop, then the roar of mach 5 exaust filled the room.

"Throttle it up."

Flames lept from the exaust pipe, and the engine, even when mounted securely on the test stand, lurched forward slightly.

http://www.galcit.caltech.edu/EDL/projects/pde/impulse58.gif

"Oh my God! We're pushing 57,000lbs of thrust!" Cheers followed this announcement. "Vibrations are leveling off at 30 MHz. We did it!"

1 year later

The pilot walked to the tarmac. To his left, the plane he was about to fly for the first time was being shown to government officials.

http://a52.g.akamaitech.net/f/52/827/1d/www.space.com/images/030804_pulse_det_04.jpg

"This thing better not blow up," he thought to himself.

"Ok folks, take your seats. We're about to start the flight."

A truck pulled up to the plane, and began pulling it toward the tarmac, where the pilot was waiting, sipping a bottle of water. The truck came to a stop, the plane was unhooked, and the pilot climbed into the cockpit. Dr. Hanes walked up to the plane to give his final thoughts to the pilot.

"Hello, doctor," the pilot said, offering a handshake, which Hanes cordially accepted.

"Good luck son. I have the utmost confidence in you. But please, bring it back in one piece."

"Roger that," the pilot said, and slammed the plexiglass cockpit shut, locking him in. He did a radio check, requested clearance to taxi from the control tower, and proceeded to fire the engine.

The plane shook, lurched forward slightly, then the vibration smoothed, just as predicted. He throttled up, and the plane began moving forward over the tarmac. He made his way to the runway, and requested clearance to take off.

"Roger that, the airspace is yours. Good luck."

"Roger that tower." With that he slammed the throttle forward, and the plane lept to life. Within 2 seconds he was all the way down the runway. He yanked the control stick up, lifting the plane off the ground.

"It's flying smooth. Smoother than anything I've flown before," he exclaimed into the microphone. "Jesus its fast!"

He brought the plane around to fly by the crowd. Pushing the throttle forward, he felt the familiar rumble of the plane going supersonic. He rolled the plane to test its responsiveness, and it didn't dissapoint.

"Ok, you've had your fun, bring it back down," Dr. Hanes called over the radio.

"Roger that." He lined the plane up with the runway, and touched down. He taxied down the tarmac, coming to a stop near the grandstands that were set up for the test. Climbing out, he, along with the engineering team, were met with a standing ovation by a crowd dominated by military brass.