Numerical investigation of flow mixture enhancement and infrared radiation shield by lobed forced mixer

For the exhaust system of turbo-fan engine, the numerical calculation is used to investigate the different mixer configurations. The method using forward–backward ray-tracing and narrow-band model to predict the radiation from engine exhaust has been developed. The scheme has been validated in accuracy for spectral radiation intensity predictions, and some useful results of practical importance have been obtained to establish its ability for infrared signature analysis of exhaust system. A series of computations on exhaust system model have been conducted to obtain the effects of mixer configuration on the aerodynamic performances and infrared radiation intensity. The results indicate that the lobed forced mixer can increase the mixing efficiency by 65%, decrease the thrust coefficient by 3% only, but the infrared radiation of plum can reduce about 40% relative to confluent mixer at zero degree aspect (normal to nozzle outlet), especially. That means the lobed forced mixer has the remarkable ability to shelter the infrared radiation from the inside enclosure of nozzle.