SE-17 Facility Description
The SE-17 Wave Rotor Experiment Test Facility combines the functions of a compressor and turbine in one unit. Instead of using blades to add or remove energy from the flow, it uses compression and expansion waves, traveling in passages on the rotor. It is intended to be used as a "turbocharger" for gas turbine engines, boosting the compression ratio. Air from the engine compressor would enter the wave rotor, and be compressed by waves to about three times its original pressure. Exiting the wave rotor, it would then pass to a combustor, and be heated. Returning to the wave rotor, it would lose pressure in expansion waves, providing the energy required to compress the incoming air in the process. The advantage of a wave rotor is that the rotor "sees" both cold and hot gases, and reaches a temperature somewhat between the two, whereas in a gas turbine engine the turbine "sees" the hot gas from the combustor directly, and attains a temperature close to that of the gas leaving the combustor. In a conventional combustor, the gas leaving the combustor is a lower pressure than the entering air. The gas leaving the wave rotor is at higher pressure that the entering air. As a result, calculations have shown that the engine incorporating the wave rotor may have a specific power up to 19% higher than the base engine, with specific fuel consumption about 15% lower.

SE-17 Special Features
The performance of thermal engines usually depends on temperature ratios rather than absolute values. Operating at reduced inlet temperatures allows reasonable high temperatures for a given temperature ratio. This is true for the wave rotor, and SE-17 is equipped with a chilled air supply at -60°F. Heating of the compressed air is performed by a 350 kW electric heater. The exhaust gases are sent to the altitude exhaust system. Most of the data are pressure readings, which are processed by an electronic scanning system, and stored in Escort. Temperatures are read by thermocouples, with the readings also stored in Escort.