Numerical Research on the Jet Mixing Mechanism of the De-Swirling Lobed Mixer Integrated with OGV

Abstract

The outlet guide vane (OGV) is integrated with the lobed mixer to improve the exhaust system’s performance with a high core inlet swirl. The best location for integrating the OGV is along the central line of the lobe’s trough and near the exit plane of the lobed mixer. Two types of lobed mixers (the scalloped reference lobed mixer and the scalloped de-swirling lobed mixer) integrating with/without OGVs, are numerically researched under eight inlet swirl conditions ranging from 0° to 35°. The simulation used the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) method with Shear Stress Transport (SST) model based on an unstructured mesh of 30 million cells. The reserved outlet flow angle of the de-swirling lobed mixer is beneficial for enhancing the strength of downstream streamwise vortices and accelerating the jet mixing. After integrating with OGV: it can significantly suppress the leakage vortex between the lobe trough and the central body and the backflow downstream of the central body; on the other hand, it can further increase the strength and scale of streamwise vortices by expanding the radial range of inner secondary flow, thereby accelerating mixing and reducing total pressure loss & thrust loss. Under the design condition, the integrated de-swirling lobed mixer can increase thrust by 3.18% and reduce the mixing loss by 31.17% compared with the reference lobed mixer. Even under non-design conditions, the integrated de-swirling lobed mixer can still use upstream inlet swirl to enhance the streamwise vortices and accelerate the jet mixing within the conditions studied in this paper. The outlet jet uniformity of the integrated de-swirling lobed mixer is better than that of the integrated reference lobed mixer for the case with the same core inlet swirl. Compared with the latter, the former also has better tolerance to the attack angle, especially for the negative attack angle conditions. Under the condition with a core inlet swirl of 35°, the thrust loss of the integrated de-swirling lobed mixer is 2.15% lower than that of the integrated reference lobed mixer.