Air blast fuel atomizer

Claim 1

An air blast fuel atomizer for atomizing fuel in the combustion chamber of a gas turbine engine comprising: a generally cylindrical primary shroud member having a downstream circumferential lip; fuel injection means for establishing a concentration of fuel on the interior surface of said primary shroud member; a primary air swirler in upstream flow communication with the interior surface of said primary shroud member so as to introduce a primary air swirl into the confines of said primary shroud member, said air swirl imparting both an axial and circumferential velocity component to said concentration of fuel; a secondary air swirler in upstream flow communication with said lip, so as to introduce an air swirl having a circumferential velocitY component opposing that of said primary air swirl such that fuel reaching said lip is atomized by the high shear stresses developed by the counter-rotating aerodynamic forces at the confluence of said primary and secondary air swirls; flow means for introducing an air flow to said primary and secondary swirlers; and a generally cylindrical centerbody within said primary shroud member and concentrically spaced apart therefrom so as to define a substantially annular air passage therebetween wherein said centerbody is hollow and said fuel injection means includes at least one fuel injection port through said centerbody, through which fuel may be directed onto the interior surface of said primary shroud to form a concentration of fuel thereon, and also wherein said fuel injection port is tangentially slanted to impart a circumferential velocity component to the fuel in the same general direction as the circumferential component of said primary air swirl.