A high-fidelity design methodology using LES-based simulation and POD-based emulation: A case study of swirl injectors

Engineering design is undergoing a paradigm shift from design for performance to design for affordability, operability, and durability, seeking multi-objective optimization. To facilitate this transformation, significantly extended design freedom and knowledge must be available in the early design stages. This paper presents a high-fidelity framework for design and optimization of the liquid swirl injectors that are widely used in aerospace propulsion and power-generation systems. The framework assembles a set of techniques, including Design Of Experiment (DOE), high-fidelity Large Eddy Simulations (LES), machine learning, Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD)-based Kriging surrogate modeling (emulation), inverse problem optimization, and uncertainty quantification. LES-based simulations can reveal detailed spatiotemporal evolution of flow structures and flame dynamics in a high-fidelity manner, and identify important injector design parameters according to their effects on propellant mixing, flame stabilization, and thermal protection. For a given a space of design parameters, DOE determines the number of design points to perform LES-based simulations. POD-based emulations, trained by the LES database, can effectively explore the design space and deduce an optimal group of design parameters in a turn-around time that is reduced by three orders of magnitude. The accuracy of the emulated results is validated, and the uncertainty of prediction is quantified. The proposed design methodology is expected to profoundly extend the knowledge base and reduce the cost for initial design stages.