Next generation fuel injectors are on the way

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) has selected GE Global Research to participate in an incubator program that will use high-performance computing (HPC) in an effort to accelerate development of next-generation liquid fuel injectors. Global Research will collaborate with Arizona State University (ASU) and Cornell University on the project “Improving Models of Spray Breakup in Liquid Fuels Combustion." The scientists hope to gain a better understanding of critical unsteady spray phenomena observed in fuel injectors used in today’s liquid-fueled engines. These unsteady spray phenomena are sometimes inaccessible to experimental measurements. Computer simulations can provide much needed insight into the origin of the unsteadiness, but doing this requires supercomputers to accurately capture the underlying physics.