Axial flow development characteristics of circular and triangular supersonic jets in the presence of an annular coflow at large separation distance

Abstract

Experimental studies were conducted to assess the effect of an annular coflow which surrounded a supersonic core jet in a coaxial jet system. Two different core jet shapes were employed which were circular and equilateral triangular. The core jets were maintained at two different total pressures, i.e. 360 and 550 kPa which corresponded to overexpansion conditions. The effect of coflow which surrounded core jet at a distance larger than the core jet diameter was such that the supersonic core length of the core jet was reduced in contrast to the elongation which was reported by earlier researchers for closer distances between the two jets. The Schlieren images of the coaxial jet system had shown that the region between the jet boundary of core jet and inner boundary of the annular coflow had a strong interaction with core jet which was characterised by a wave system and vortices. This region caused a reduction in supersonic core length and weakening of shock structure in the core jet. These findings have been corroborated by total pressure measurements along the core jet centreline. For the same operational conditions, the coflow caused reduction in supersonic core length more for triangular core jet when compared to that for circular core jet.