The aim of this study is to examine the effects of Reynolds number (Re = 6000–20,000) on mean and turbulent quantities as well as turbulent structures in the near and intermediate regions of equilateral triangular and round sharp contraction jets. The results show shorter potential core length, faster growth of turbulence intensity, and faster diffusion of turbulent structures to the centerline of the triangular jets, implying enhanced mixing in the near field of these jets. On the other hand, the velocity decay and jet spread rates are higher in the round jets. The obtained data in the round jets show that the jet at Re = 6000 has the most effective mixing, while an increase in Reynolds number reduces the mixing performance. In the triangular jets, however, no Reynolds number effects were observed on the measured quantities including the length of the potential core, the decay and spread rates, the axis-switching locations, and the value of the Reynolds number. In addition, the asymptotic values of the relative turbulence intensities on the jet centerline are almost independent of the Reynolds number and geometry. The ratios of transverse and spanwise Reynolds stresses are unity except close to the jet exit where the flow pattern in the major plane of the triangular jet deflects toward the flat side. Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) analysis revealed that turbulent structures in minor and major planes have identical fractional kinetic energy. The integral length scales increased linearly with the streamwise distance with identical slope for all the test cases.
An experimental study was conducted to investigate the effect of nozzle geometries on the statistical properties of free orifice jets at low and moderate Reynolds numbers. The studied cross sections were round, square, and ellipses with aspect ratios of 2 and 3. For each jet, detailed velocity measurements were made using a particle image velocimetry (PIV) system at Reynolds numbers of 2500 and 17,000. The results showed that at both Reynolds numbers, the elliptic jets had relatively higher velocity decay and jet spreading; however, the nozzle geometry effects were more pronounced at Re = 17,000 than at Re = 2500. Analysis of the swirling strength revealed that the rotational motions induced by vortices within the minor planes of the elliptic jets were stronger than observed in the major planes, square and round jets which were consistent with the relatively higher spreading observed in the minor planes. It was observed that the streamwise locations of the switchover points were independent of Reynolds number but are a strong function of aspect ratio. Based on the present results and those documented in the literature, a linear correlation was proposed for the location of axis-switching in orifice jets. Due to the axis-switching phenomena, a sign change was observed in the distribution of the Reynolds shear stress in the major planes of the elliptic jets. This results in the existence of regions with negative eddy viscosity in the near field regions, an observation that has an important implication for the predictive capabilities of standard eddy viscosity models.
An experimental investigation was conducted to study the effects of Reynolds number on mixing characteristics and turbulent transport phenomena in the near and intermediate regions of free equilateral triangular and round jets issuing from modified contoured nozzles (nozzles with sharp linear contractions). Detailed velocity measurements were made using a particle image velocimetry at Reynolds numbers of 6000, 10000, 13800 and 20000. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was also applied to understand the flow behaviors in different Reynolds numbers. We applied standard k-ε turbulence model in an axisymmetric domain to conduct the numerical simulation of the round jet cases. The potential core length was the system response quantity to evaluate our simulation against the experimental results. The geometrical comparative study shows enhanced mixing in the near field of the triangular jets compared to the round jets, regardless of Reynolds number. This conclusion is supported by shorter potential core length and faster growth of turbulence intensity on the centerline of the triangular jets. The obtained data in the round jets exhibit that the jet at the lowest Reynolds number has the most effective mixing with the ambient fluid, while increase in Reynolds number reduces the mixing performance. In the triangular jets almost there is no Reynolds number effect on the measured quantities including the length of the potential core, the decay rate and the axis-switching locations. The results revealed that the asymptotic values of the turbulence intensities on the jet centerline are not only independent of the Reynolds number but also they are the same for both the round and triangular jets. Due to the specific shape of the triangular nozzle, a skewed flow pattern is observed in the near field region in the major plane while the jet is absolutely symmetric in the minor plane. The turbulence structures in all the jets studied become larger as streamwise distance increases, while there is no considerable Reynolds number or nozzle geometry effects on the size of the structures on the jet centerline.
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