Numerical Study of Liquid Film Characteristics at Varying Operating Conditions in Prefilmer Airblast Atomizer

The atomization of liquid fuel in gas turbines is one of the key factors that affect the combustion performance. After the adaptation of the k-ϵ-turbulence model for two-phase flows and the definition of the film thickness, this work investigates and reports the influence of different parameters on the behavior of the liquid film on the prefilmer of airblast atomizers. A correlation that can be used to predict the mean film thickness has been developed and is proposed in the present study. This correlation can be used in order to optimize the design of airblast atomizers.