Large-eddy simulation of a planar offset-jet with heat transfer: The effects of ventilation

Abstract

Several industrial and engineering applications employ ventilated offset-jets such as flow separation control devices, upper surface blowing used in short take-off and landing aircraft, drying processes, and fuel injection systems. The design and efficient operation of these devices relies on controlling the turbulence levels, heat transfer rates, and the locations of flow reattachment points. Therefore, an understanding of the flow and thermal characteristics of ventilated offset-jets helps in the design and operation of these devices. The present study aims to address this by performing large-eddy simulations (LES) of a planar turbulent offset-jet for different velocities of the ventilated-jet. To understand and quantify the effects of ventilation on the offset-jet, a range of velocity-ratios of 0, 0.1, 0.14, and 0.18 are considered for a primary offset-jet Reynolds number of 14,000. First, a grid-sensitivity study is performed to establish the convergence of the solver and the LES index of quality of resolution is obtained to ascertain the quality of the mesh. Thereafter, the mean and second-order statistics of the streamwise component of velocity are compared with reference data from the literature to validate the numerical solver. The effects of ventilation on the offset-jet are studied using the decay of streamwise velocity, jet-spread, the evolution of pressure coefficient, friction coefficient, the mean Nusselt number, and the unsteady characteristics. As the velocity-ratio increases, the suction pressure in the initial region of the domain decreases, which causes the jet to spread away from the bottom wall. Further the peak magnitudes of the mean Nusselt number and coefficient of pressure decrease exponentially with an increase in the velocity-ratio. The peak magnitude of the mean Nusselt number for the unventilated-jet case – the offset-jet without the ventilated-jet – is the largest and its value for the ventilated-jet cases decreases as the velocity-ratio is increased. It is concluded that in the initial region, the ventilated-jet has a profound effect on the offset-jet flow and as the flow develops into a wall-jet the effects of ventilation vanish.