Hydrodynamics and Local Turbulent Mixing of Submerged, Parallel Liquid Jets: Experiments and CFD Simulations

Abstract

The hydrodynamics and local turbulent mixing of parallel multiple liquid jets, submerged in liquid, were investigated by means of experiments and computational fluid dynamics (CFD). A renormalization group (RNG) k-ε turbulence model was used to simulate the flow field. The model was validated experimentally by particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements. In the converging region adjacent to the nozzle exits, the recirculation region disappears, and there is only ambient fluid entrainment. Different jet arrays were compared to evaluate the effects of the jet spatial arrangement on the hydrodynamics and mixing performance. A shorter mixing length in the merging region suggests that mixing is more efficient in the triple-jet system than in other jet systems. Compared with the jet Reynolds number, the jet spacing plays a more significant role in determining the critical mixing regions, while the linear relationship between them is more sensitive than that for multiple parallel plane jets.