Application of an Automated Procedure to the Aero-thermal Design of Aero Engine Combustor

The requirements for low emissions and high efficiency in the aeronautical industry are becoming every day more challenging for the design of the engine components. For this reason, plus the complexity of the combustor functioning, an automated approach becomes essential to optimize the process of the design of this powerful and delicate component. The work of this thesis, done in collaboration with Avio Aero, focuses on the use of an automated approach called DSI to evaluate the aerothermal design of a straight through combustor. A Design of Experiment has been set up in order to investigate the design space and choose specific design points that allow the generation of a response surface. For each design point the DSI has been applied to generate the CAD geometry, run the CFD simulation and calculate the output parameters of interest. From these data it is possible to create the response surface, which contains the values of the output for any set of input. Thanks to this item, the most impactful factors for the design have been individuated and trends for the aerothermal features have been evaluated.