Patent attributes
A trapped vortex cavity afterburner includes one or more trapped vortex cavity stages for injecting a fuel/air mixture into a combustion zone. The trapped vortex cavity afterburner is operable to provide all thrust augmenting fuel used for engine thrust augmentation. Each stage has at least one annular trapped vortex cavity. The trapped vortex cavity afterburner may be a multi-stage afterburner having two or more trapped vortex cavity stages ganged for simultaneous ignition or operable for sequential ignition. One embodiment of the annular trapped vortex cavity is operable to raise a temperature of an exhaust gas flow through the afterburner about 100 to 200 degrees Fahrenheit. Each of the trapped vortex cavity stages may be operable to produce a single or a different amount of temperature rise of the exhaust gas flow through the afterburner. A chevron shaped trapped vortex cavity and having zig-zag shaped leading and trailing edges may be used.
