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.