On the behaviour of the upstream-travelling waves in merging twin-jet systems

Abstract

There is currently considerable interest in the guided-jet mode, as a result of recent works demonstrating it being the upstream component of various resonant systems in high-speed flows. For given jet operating conditions, the mode is known to exist over only a finite-frequency range that, for a twin-jet system, has been observed to vary with both jet separation and solution symmetry. Vortex-sheet and finite-thickness linear stability models are here employed to consider the behaviour of the guided-jet mode as the two jets are brought together, for both a planar and round twin-jet system. It is demonstrated that in both cases as the twin-jet system merges it forms a higher-order mode of an equivalent single-jet geometry. This then imposes a constraint on the guided-jet mode as the finite-frequency range must change to meet that of the equivalent geometry the system merges to, explaining the previously observed dependence on jet separation.