Direct numerical simulation of planar turbulent jets: Effect of a pintle orifice

Abstract

The effects of a pintle-shaped orifice on a planar turbulent jet flow at Reynolds number 4000, based on the inlet bulk mean velocity and the jet width, are studied using direct numerical simulations. Flapping of the jet along with a low-frequency modulation of the Kelvin–Helmholtz (KH) instability, in the presence of a pintle-shaped orifice, is observed. To compare the pintle-jet behavior, a free-jet is simulated as a reference case. The effects of the near-field region on the far-field flow characteristics have been investigated. In both the cases, the KH instability in the near-field influences the far-field jet, whereas the pintle-jet also exhibits a low-frequency flapping. In addition, oblique vortex pattern has been observed in the case of pintle-jet. The far-field flow statistics of the pintle-jet with a top-hat inlet interestingly agree with those of the free-jet with a hyperbolic tangent inlet. Temporal variation of the jet characteristics has been analyzed using spatiotemporal plots. In addition, the large- and small-scale turbulent motion have been studied using three anisotropic invariant maps (turbulence triangles, eigenvalue, and barycentric maps). Moreover, that the barycentric map gives a better visualization of the anisotropic behavior has been observed in the current study.