Steady and unsteady coupling in twin weakly underexpanded round jets

Abstract

We investigate the intermittency of the coupling behaviour in screeching twin round supersonic jets at low Mach numbers across a range of nozzle spacings. Application of proper orthogonal decomposition combined with time-frequency wavelet analysis and spectral proper orthogonal decomposition shows that intermittency can manifest in twin jets as either a competition between the two symmetries, or the jets uncoupling and recoupling. The time scales on which symmetry switching occurs can vary strongly, ranging from $O(10^2)$ to $O(10^3)$ screech cycles. A transition from one symmetry to another is accompanied by a slight change in the screech frequency ranging from 0.30 % to 0.63 %. It was observed that complete uncoupling occurred only at the largest nozzle spacing of $s/D=6$ and at Mach numbers close to modal staging. When the jets are uncoupled they screech at slightly different frequencies, with a disparity of approximately 0.6 %. The coupling is particularly intermittent in the transition from the A1 to A2 branch, where the A2 mode is first observed, and tends toward steady coupling with increasing Mach number.