With its strong dependence on gas-turbine engines for
propulsion, the U.S. Navy is always looking for ways to improve
the fuel consumption of these engines. At the Naval Research
Laboratory (NRL), scientists are studying the complex physics of
Rotating Detonation Engines (RDEs) which offer the potential for
high dollar savings by way of reduced fuel consumption in gas-
turbine engines, explains Dr. Kazhikathra Kailasanath, who heads
NRL’s Laboratories for Computational Physics and Fluid Dynamics.
Many Navy aircraft use gas-turbine engines for propulsion, with
the Navy’s gas-turbine engines being fundamentally similar to
engines used in commercial airplanes. The Navy also depends on
gas-turbine engines to provide propulsion and electricity for
many of its ships. Even as future ships move toward the model of
an “all electric” propulsion system, they will still need gas-
turbine engines to produce electricity for the propulsion system
and other critical systems. So building a gas-turbine engine
that can handle the