Numerical modelling of unsteady flow behaviour in the rectangular jets with oblique opening

Abstract

Vortex shedding in a bank of three rectangular burner-jets was investigated using a CFD model. The jets were angled to the wall and the whole burner was recessed into a cavity in the wall; the ratio of velocities between the jets varied from 1 to 3. The model was validated against experimentally measured velocity profiles and wall pressure tapings from a physical model of the same burner geometry, and was generally found to reproduce the mean flow field faithfully. The CFD model showed that vortex shedding was induced by a combination of an adverse pressure gradient, resulting from the diffuser-like geometry of the recess, and the entrainment of fluid into the spaces separating the jets. The asymmetry of the burner, a consequence of being angled to the wall, introduced a cross-stream component into the adverse pressure gradient that forced the jets to bend away from their geometric axes, the extent of which depended upon the jet velocity. The vortex shedding was also found to occur in different jets depending on the jet velocity ratio.