AbstractA numerical study was performed to investigate chemically reactive flows with sprays inside a staged turbine combustor (STC) using a modified version of the KIVA‐II code. This STC consists of a fuel nozzle (FN), a rich‐burn (RB) zone, a converging connecting pipe, a quick‐quench (QQ) zone, a diverging connecting pipe and a lean‐combustion (LC) zone. From the computational viewpoint, it is more efficient to split the STC into two subsystems, called FN/RB zone and QQ/LC zones, and the numerical solutions were obtained separately for each subsystem. This paper addresses the numerical results of the STC which is equipped with an advanced airblast fuel nozzle. The airblast nozzle has two fuel injection passages and four air flow passages. The input conditions used in this study were chosen similar to those encountered in advanced combustion systems. Preliminary results generated illustrate some of the major features of the flow and temperature fields inside the STC. Velocity, temperature and some critical species information inside the FN/RB zone are given. Formation of the co‐ and counter‐rotating bulk flow and the sandwiched‐ring‐shaped temperature field, typical of the confined inclined jet‐in‐cross‐flow, can be seen clearly in the QQ/LC zones. The calculations of the mass‐weighted standard deviation and the pattern factor of temperature revealed that the mixing performance of the STC is very promising. The temperature of the fluid leaving the LC zone is very uniform. Prediction of the NOx emission shows that there is no excessive thermal NOx produced in the QQ/LC zones for the case studied. From the results obtained so far, it appears that the modified KIVA‐II code can be used to guide the low‐emission combustion experiments.