Patent ID: 8272218

Claim:
A fuel nozzle for delivery of fuel to a gas turbine engine, the fuel nozzle comprising: a tubular nozzle member comprising an outer nozzle wall defining a longitudinal axis, the nozzle wall including an inner wall surface and an outer wall surface and having a fuel inlet end and a fuel outlet end; a center body including an outer body surface, the center body having a longitudinal axis that is substantially collinear with the longitudinal axis of the nozzle wall; a gap defined between the inner wall surface and the outer body surface and extending circumferentially about the outer body surface for providing fuel flow in a longitudinal direction from an upstream end adjacent the inlet end to a downstream end adjacent the outlet end, wherein at least a portion of the fuel flow in the gap flows in the longitudinal direction substantially parallel to the longitudinal axes of the wall surface and the nozzle wall, and a turbulating feature on at least one of the inner wall surface and the outer body surface comprising a spiral configuration extending between the upstream end and the downstream end for causing at least a portion of the fuel flow in the gap to flow transverse to the longitudinal direction, the upstream end including a plurality of starts for supplying fuel to a plurality of flow paths defined on the spiral configuration, and the gap being effective to provide a substantially uniform temperature distribution along the nozzle wall in the circumferential direction.