Multi objective Numerical Investigation of a Generic Airblast Injector Design

Abstract

In combustor design for aeroengines, engineers face multiple opposing objectives with strict constraints. The trend toward lean direct injection (LDI) combustors suggests a growing emphasis on injector design to balance these objectives. Decades of empirical and analytical work have produced loworder methods, including semiempirical and semianalytical correlations and models of combustors and their components, but detailed modeling of injector and combustor behavior requires computational fluid dynamics (CFD). In this study, an application of loworder methods and published guidelines yielded generic injector and combustor geometries, as well as CFD boundary conditions of parameterized injector designs. Moreover, semiempirical correlations combined with a numerical spray combustion solver provided injector design evaluations in terms of pattern factor, thermoacoustic performance, and certain emissions. Automation and parallel coordinate visualization enabled exploration of the dualswirler airblast injector design space, which is often neglected in published combustor design studies.