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Dilution Jet Mixing in Chamber |
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The flow and thermal fields in a combustor are one of the most complex occurrences in a gas turbine engine and subsequently the most difficult to predict. Typical gas-turbine engine combustors for aero-engines have a chamber with a flow area defined by an annulus containing evenly-spaced fuel-injection nozzles. Annular combustion chambers have the advantage of requiring less space and weight than cannular chambers, for example, but have the disadvantage of being difficult to obtain both a uniform air-fuel distribution and exit condition. High momentum dilution jets are used to enhance mixing while low momentum cooling jets are used to keep the combustor chamber walls from melting. |
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Figure 1. Schematic of large scale combustor simulator. |
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To evaluate the flow and thermal fields that occur in a typical combustor of an aero-engine and to further our computational predictive methods, a large-scale facility was developed to simulate prototypical combustor flows. Figure 1 shows the plan view of the combustor liner walls with dilution and cooling holes. The aim of the work is to provide data for benchmarking numerical predictions of the turbulent flows that develop. Figure 2 shows some experimental measurements of the thermal field downstream of the dilution jets. |
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Figure 2. Measured thermal field downstream of a dilution jet. |
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Project Funded by: Pratt & Whitney and Air Force Research Lab |