Effervescent Atomizers for Small Gas Turbines

Abstract

An experimental investigation is conducted into the potential of effervescent atomizers as fuel injectors for gas turbine engines. The designs studied include three different configurations of multihole effervescent atomizers and an effervescent/airblast hybrid atomizer. In all tests the liquid employed is water. The spray characteristics investigated include drop size distributions and liquid flux distributions within the spray. The results obtained show that multi hole effervesent atomizers combine good atomization with uniform liquid flux distribution. This makes them especially suitable for application to annular combustors because they allow appreciable reductions to be made 1n the number of fuel injectors needed to achieve uniform circumferential fuel distribution. The hybrid atomizer also combines good atomization with the capability of wide cone angles. The only drawback exhibited by these atomizers is the need for a separate supply of atomizing air. This drawback could restrict their applications to non-aeronautical gas turbine engines.