Analysis of Flow Migration in an Ultra-Compact Combustor

The Ultra Compact Combustor (UCC) has the potential to offer improved thrust-to-weight and overall efficiency in a turbojet engine. The thrust-to-weight improvement is due to a reduction in engine weight by shortening the combustor section through the use of the revolutionary UCC design. The improved efficiency is achieved by using an increased fuel-to-air mass ratio, and allowing the fuel to fully combust prior to exiting the UCC system. Furthermore, g-loaded combustion offers increased flame speeds that can lead to smaller combustion volumes. The circumferential combustion of the fuel in the UCC cavity results in hot gases present at the outside diameter of the core flow. This orientation creates an issue in that the flow from the circumferential cavity needs to migrate radially and blend with the core flow to present a uniform temperature distribution to the high-pressure turbine rotor. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis is presented for the flow patterns in the combustor section of a representative fighter-scale engine. The analysis included a study of secondary flows, cavity flow characteristics, shear layer interactions and mixing properties. An initial understanding of primary factors that impact the radial migration is presented. Computational comparisons were also made between an engine realistic condition and an ambient pressure rig environment.