Multi-objective numerical investigation of a generic airblast injector design

© Copyright 2016 by ASME.In combustor design for aero-engines, 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 low-order methods, including semi-empirical and semi-analytical 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 low-order methods and published guidelines yielded generic injector and combustor geometries, as well as CFD boundary conditions of parameterized injector designs. Moreover, semi-empirical 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 dual-swirler airblast injector design space, which is often neglected in published combustor design studies.This research was funded by the Gates Cambridge Trust and the United States Air Force. The views expressed in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Air Force, the Department of Defense or the U.S. Government