Three-dimensional fuel–air mixing phenomena in a side-dump combustor: A numerical study

Three-dimensional fuel–air mixing phenomena in a side-dump combustor with fuel injectors arranged in dual curved side-inlet ducts are numerically investigated in the present paper. The model adopts a complete computational domain, including side-inlet ducts and combustion chamber, for numerical calculations. Three cases with different locations of fuel injector are analyzed to investigate the effects of fuel injecting positions on the flow structures and mixing phenomena in side-inlet ducts as well as in combustion chamber. The results show that the interaction of curvature effects of side-inlet ducts and the fuel injection flow significantly change the vortex motion in the curved side-inlet ducts. The axial recirculation and fuel distributions in the combustion chamber are also found to be influenced substantially by the fuel injection, which indicates the precise control of the fuel injection is very important for getting good fuel distributions, and in turn to achieve good combustion performance.