Rotating detonation engine is a promising detonation-based propulsion system. In this paper, a series of numerical simulations of H-2/air RDE are performed to show the plume flowfield of a RDE in detail and to obtain the pressure distribution on the end faces of the inner cylinder and the outer wall. The thrust force of the RDE is calculated with/without considering the two end faces to show its effect on the propulsive performance. Then the effects of the total massflow rate and the environment pressure on the propulsive performance are discussed. Under high environment pressure condition, the inner cylinder end face brings a notable disadvantage of the propulsive performance due to the strong suction effects. This disadvantage disappears under low environment pressure condition. The fluctuation of the total thrust force is dominated by the outer wall end face. As the massflow rate increases, the engine's thrust force becomes more steady. Under low environment pressure condition, the engine's thrust force is very stable and its fluctuation can be neglected. Under high environment pressure conditions, the use of the conventional thrust calculation formula overestimates the average thrust force and underestimates the unsteadiness of the thrust force obviously. (C) 2018 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
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