Jet In Crossflow Research Articles

Mixing Enhancement Mechanism of Liquid Jet in Supersonic Crossflow with Gas Throttling

Numerical and experimental studies were conducted to uncover the physical aspects of a liquid jet injected into a supersonic crossflow with gas throttling systematically. The results were obtained with the inflow conditions of a Mach number of 2.0, a total temperature of 300 K, and a total pressure of 0.55 MPa. The results show that fuel–air mixing is considerably enhanced due to shock-induced flow distortion by adding gas throttling. The strength of downstream backpressure determines the distance of forward movement of the throttling shock wave train and the flowfield structure in the channel. When the mass flux of gas throttling is high, the influence of throttling gas spreads across the expansion section, resulting in significant flow separation in front of the liquid jet. It is found that the spray flashback phenomenon is similar to the flame flashback phenomenon that occurs in the supersonic combustion process under the action of a precombustion shock train. The wall counterrotating vortex pair and induced cavity streamwise vortices are enhanced with the increase of the flux of gas throttling. The relatively high-pressure environment generated by gas throttling promotes the atomization of droplets. As a result, the mixing enhancement mechanism of a liquid jet in a supersonic crossflow with gas throttling is mainly due to the combined effects of 1) the shock waves separating the side wall boundary layer and modifying the local flow state of air in the combustor, which lead to a dramatic increase in fuel–air mixing, and 2) the streamwise vorticity values as well as the residence time resulting from channel blockage elevating.

Numerical study on enhanced-diffusion characteristics of kerosene jet in supersonic crossflow

The enhanced-diffusion characteristics of kerosene jet in supersonic crossflow under different supersonic mainstream and kerosene injection conditions were discussed in this paper. Numerous numerical simulations were conducted under varying shock wave intensities, injection momentum flux ratio conditions based on Euler-Lagrangian method. The influence of low-enthalpy (Tt=300 K) and high-enthalpy (Tt=1680 K) supersonic inflow conditions on kerosene diffusion was also involved. The results indicate that the momentum flux ratio caused by injection and evaporation jointly determines the diffusion ability of kerosene. The increase of injection momentum flux ratio and shock wave intensity promotes both the penetration ability and evaporation gain. However, the relative growth rate of penetration depth decreases, and the relative growth rate of evaporation penetration gain increases. As the jet momentum flow ratio decreases and the shock wave intensity increases, the mixing efficiency and relative growth rate of kerosene increase. A judicious design of injection measures proves to be an effective approach for enhancing the diffusion and mixing of kerosene, which holds significant importance in further enhancing the performance of supersonic combustors.

A variable turbulent Schmidt number model in Jet-in-Crossflow simulation and its applications

This study proposes a variable turbulent Schmidt number (Sct) model to improve the precision of Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations for Jet-in-Crossflow (JICF) scalar mixing phenomena, with a particular focus on hydrogen/air mixing characterized by strong density variations. By incorporating a correction term associated with turbulent kinetic energy based on a selected Sct value, the model aims to amplify the diffusion rate of the jet, particularly in regions where the interaction between the mainstream flow and the jet is significant. This enhancement in simulation accuracy is validated against Large Eddy Simulation (LES) results, which serve as the benchmark for analysis. Statistical analysis of LES results reveals a notable increase in the turbulent diffusion coefficient in regions characterized by strong interactions between the jet and mainstream flow. Meanwhile, minimal variation in turbulent viscosity is observed, resulting in a reduced Sct in areas with high turbulent kinetic energy. The proposed model is validated within a open-space JICF case, a micro-tube JICF case and a free jet case. In micro-tube JICF scenarios, initial simulations with a fixed Sct value were conducted. Following comparison, a value of 0.7 was identified as the basis for correction. Subsequently, the variable Sct model was implemented, thereby enhancing the accuracy of RANS simulations in micro-tubes.

Wake vortex formation and its role in turbulent heat transport in jet in crossflow

Wake vortex formation and its role in turbulent heat transport in jet in crossflow

Enhancing thermal field prediction in a jet in cross flow through turbulent heat flux model optimization by using large eddy simulation

High fidelity big data obtained from highly accurate large eddy simulation (LES) was utilized to enhance current models for turbulent heat transfer, boosting the precision of the realizable Reynolds averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) k-ε model in forecasting film cooling thermal field. The LES analysis was conducted on a flat plate with a jet in crossflow, at a primary flow Reynolds number (Re) of around 17382. Post-validation of the LES outcomes, a data analysis, and a numerical optimization (gradient descent algorithm) technique were employed to fine-tune three chosen models for turbulent Prandtl number using data near the coolant wall. In order to demonstrate the effectiveness of these refined models for RANS simulations of various film cooling setups with distinct shapes and flow situations, a series of simulations were executed, encompassing two curved surfaces to simulate flow around leading-edge and over the blade suction side. The optimized models exhibited marked enhancement in forecasting film cooling effectiveness in both averaged lateral and longitudinal directions (achieving reductions in numerical errors of up to 68.0 % and 43.67 % respectively). These fine-tuned models were proven suitable for use across different geometries and flow conditions according to their performance in three analyzed problems.

Numerical simulation of the primary breakup of fuel jet with incoming positive velocity gradient

To study the breakup process of fuel jets in air crossflow with a positive velocity gradient, the Volume of Fluid (VOF) method and adaptive grid technology are combined to simulate the two-phase flow of gas and liquid. A comparative analysis is conducted on the breakup and corresponding flow characteristics of direct fuel jets under uniform and positive velocity gradient airflow. The simulation results demonstrate that the morphological changes of the fuel column are caused by factors such as gas-liquid shear and asymmetric airflow vortices. The fuel jet undergoes primary breakup, which mainly contains columnar and surface breakup. The columnar breakup is dominated by Rayleigh-Taylor (R-T) instability, while the surface breakup is dominated by Kelvin-Helmholtz (K-H) instability. Compared with uniform flow, the expansion angle in the positive velocity gradient incoming flow increases by an average of 9.2%, and the wavelength of the surface wave increases by an average of 34%.

Forced response of transverse reacting jet in vitiated crossflow to harmonic velocity disturbances

The orthogonally oriented injector configuration typically used in axial fuel staging-capable gas turbine combustors is known to produce complicated thermoacoustic interactions between two distinct reaction zones. Despite the fundamental importance of transfer functions of transverse reacting jets in vitiated crossflow, however, their distinctive properties remain unknown, and associated low-order modeling combined with two different flame transfer functions remains entirely undemonstrated. From detailed measurements of transfer functions of lean-premixed primary and secondary flames in response to harmonic velocity disturbances, here we show that the transfer function of a transverse reacting jet in high-temperature crossflow is described as having relatively larger gain without undulating patterns, near-linear slow decay in magnitude with respect to the forcing frequency, and remarkably shorter duration response time. By leveraging a reduced-order modeling approach to account for the finite time delay between the two distinct transfer functions and by validating the calculation results against velocity and pressure measurement data, we demonstrate that self-induced instabilities in an axial fuel-staged system can be simultaneously driven by the dynamics of primary and secondary flames, and that the triggering of second-stage-induced instability is characteristically connected to higher-order acoustic modes. Such non-axisymmetric intra-combustor interactions generate a cascade of spectral peaks, including the first and third longitudinal modes and their respective higher harmonics, and additional peaks at the sum and difference of two individual frequencies. While the primary flame's dynamics are capable of selectively exciting the first mode, the secondary jet flame exhibits more complicated modal dynamics, manifested as the L3 mode-coupled jet merging-related flame surface annihilation and the L1 mode-coupled lateral movements of the transverse jet column.

The effect of methane addition on reacting hydrogen jets in crossflow

The combustion characteristics in a jet in crossflow configuration are numerically investigated using Large Eddy Simulation (LES) with subgrid scale modelling for partially premixed combustion. The time-averaged statistics are compared with the experimental measurements. Both the temperature and velocity comparisons show good agreement with measurements. The distribution of reaction regions of nitrogen-diluted hydrogen fuel jet is then examined in both physical and mixture fraction space. The results demonstrate that the fuel consumption in potential core, near-field and far-field regions occurs at various mixture fraction ranges. In the potential core region, reactions predominantly occur between the lean and stoichiometric mixture fraction range. This range broadens to include fuel-rich conditions in the near-field region and narrows again to fuel-lean combustion in the far-field region. With these changes in the mixture fraction range, the fractional contribution from different combustion modes also changes. A closer study of these changes reveals that the fractional contribution from the non-premixed mode is highest at the end of the potential core region. The dependency of these combustion modes on the fuel composition is studied by increasing the volume fraction of methane in the jet. This resulted in altered chemical kinetics and thereby increased the fractional contribution of the non-premixed mode, particularly in the potential core region.

Characteristics of the jet shear layer of a round elevated jet in crossflow

The present research aims at an experimental study to investigate the effect of velocity ratio (R) on the evolution of elevated round jet issued from a stack having an aspect ratio (AR) of 9.0 in a uniform crossflow at a Reynolds number of 2000. The experiments are conducted in a low-speed, recirculating water tunnel. Laser Doppler Velocimetry (LDV) is employed to characterize the water tunnel. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) is used to measure the flow field, and the dye visualization technique is utilized to capture the accompanying instantaneous flow structures. Depending on the velocity ratio (R = 0.16 - 1.5), distinct jet shear layer (JSL) structures are observed in the symmetric plane (XY), confirmed by both the flow visualization and PIV data. These structures include clockwise vortices, anticlockwise vortices, swing-induced mushroom vortices, and jet-like vortices. For R<0.5, entrainment of a substantial amount of jet fluid into the stack-wake region (downwash) has been observed. At R=0.5, the streak image captured in the wall parallel plane reveals the ring-like vortices that appear to wrap around the jet core while upright vortices are detected downstream on the lee side of the jet. Additionally, variations in average velocity and turbulent fluctuations in the near field, contingent on different velocity ratios, are discussed.

Dynamics of elevated dodecane jets in crossflow at supercritical pressure

In advanced aero-engines, kerosene is often transversely injected into the combustor at supercritical pressure, where the shorter jet penetration depth may result in poor mixing and the local hot spots near the combustor wall. Elevating the jet nozzle is proposed to remedy these issues, where the flowfield complexity increases as a result of the intricate interactions among the jet, crossflow, and stack wake. The distinct flow dynamics of elevated dodecane jets in crossflow (EJICF) at supercritical pressure are numerically investigated using large eddy simulation. The effects of various parameters, including ambient pressure, elevation stack thickness, and stack height are studied. The results reveal that, the jet-wake recirculation bubble is prominently evident at low supercritical pressure, attributed to the strong real-fluid effect resulting from significant density stratification in the jet's upstream shear layer. Analysis of streamline patterns and vorticity budgets underscores the role of the real-fluid effect in delaying the shift of the flow pattern from the transitional regime to the jet-dominated regime. Increasing stack thickness mitigates the impact of jet upshear effects and has the potential to eliminate the lock-in phenomena between jet wake and stack wake. A reduction in stack height leads to the diminishment of the stack wake vortex shedding. In contrast to conventional JICF, the EJICF configuration exhibits a heightened tendency for recirculation bubble formation in the jet wake region. An analysis of spatial mixing deficiencies demonstrates that incorporating an elevation stack with proper thickness and height can dramatically improve the jet-crossflow mixing efficiency.

Experimental study on the penetration and evaporation characteristics of a liquid kerosene jet in the supersonic crossflow

The penetration and evaporation characteristics of a liquid kerosene jet in the supersonic crossflow were experimentally investigated in this study. The experiments were carried out in both cold and high-enthalpy inflows. Detailed spray images were obtained using planar laser scattering techniques. The structures of the spray field were further analyzed on the basis of high spatial and temporal resolution images. The results show that the atomization and evaporation characteristics of a liquid kerosene jet are related to the crossflow temperature, liquid–gas momentum flux ratio, and injection distance. It is found that the breakup process of a liquid jet is accelerated in the high-enthalpy inflow. To accurately describe the maximum flow distance along the direction that kerosene can reach in the state of droplets, the survival distance is defined. It is revealed that the penetration depth and survival distance of the liquid kerosene jet decrease clearly with increase in the crossflow temperature. For the cavity-based combustor, the liquid kerosene jet can mix more sufficiently in the cavity region by reducing the injection distance and liquid–gas momentum flux ratio.

Flow dynamics and mixing of jet in crossflow with cylindrical cavity

The flow dynamics and mixing characteristics of an air jet issued from a cylindrical cavity in an air crossflow are numerically studied using a large-eddy-simulation technique. The cavity, aligned concentrically with the jet, is located beneath the crossflow wall. The jet-to-crossflow velocity ratio is 4, and the Reynolds number for the jet flow is 1.39×104 based on its diameter and centerline velocity. The presence of the cavity significantly influences the early evolution of the jet and its interaction with the crossflow. Complex vortical structures are observed. Notably, windward vortices on the jet surface increase in size, accompanied by a reduction in the Strouhal number. For a deep cavity, these vortices break down and result in small vortical tubes in the jet streamwise direction due to secondary instability. Also examined are leeward shear-layer vortices, hanging vortices, wake vortices, and the recirculating flow within the cavity. Their roles in the mixing between the jet fluid and the crossflow are identified. The cavity enhances mixing. The effect is significant in the near field but diminishes in the far field. By adjusting the cavity radius and depth, it is determined that the cavity depth exercises a more profound impact on jet evolution and mixing than the cavity radius. The most substantial influence occurs when a narrow and deep cavity is implemented. These findings may serve as guidelines for optimizing cavity design for effective modulation of jet behaviors.

Numerical Investigation of the Impact of the Rectangular Nozzle Aspect Ratio On Liquid Jet in Crossflow

Abstract High fidelity simulation is conducted to investigate liquid jet in crossflow, specifically regarding the rectangular nozzle. The influence of aspect ratio (AR) of nozzles on the atomization characteristics of liquid column in the process of primary breakup is explored by the analysis of the flow structure of crossflow and liquid column. The aspect ratio is ranging from 1 to 8. The results indicate that as the increase of aspect ratio, the disturbance of crossflow to the liquid on the sides is weakened. While the thickness of liquid column also gradually decreases, which enables smaller disturbances to promote droplet shedding. Therefore, surface breakup first weakens and then strengthens. In the column breakup process, the increase of aspect ratio causes crossflow to become the main factor affecting column breakup, and the influence of air pressure gradually weakens. This indicates a shift in the mechanism of surface instability from “Rayleigh-Taylor” (R-T) instability to “Kelvin-Helmholtz” (K-H) instability.

Analysis of film cooling effectiveness for jet in crossflow with upstream and downstream roughness

Analysis of film cooling effectiveness for jet in crossflow with upstream and downstream roughness

Effect of elevated crossflow temperature on jet primary atomization

Liquid jet in hot gas crossflow is widely employed in industrial combustion devices, especially in the propulsion systems. In this work, the effect of elevated crossflow temperature on the primary atomization of a liquid jet is experimentally investigated, including breakup regime, surface wavelength, column breakup height, and near-field trajectory. The experiments are conducted at crossflow temperatures of 300 K and 500 K, with gas Weber number ranging from 8.82 to 67.55 and momentum flux ratio from 10 to 50. The gas Weber number and momentum flux ratio are kept constant via increasing the crossflow velocity when crossflow temperature increases. The results show that the elevated crossflow temperature weakens surface breakup, particularly at high momentum flux ratios, which makes the transition of breakup regime from column breakup to surface breakup require higher gas Weber number or momentum flux ratio. Besides, the elevated crossflow temperature leads to a slight increase in surface wavelength, column breakup height and near-field trajectory, with the increase in trajectory being more pronounced at lower gas Weber numbers. Finally, an empirical correlation for the near-field trajectory is obtained, including the effects of crossflow temperature, gas Weber number, and momentum flux ratio.

Simulation study on the breakup process of kerosene Gel Jet in transverse airflow

The gel propellant not only inherits the characteristics of liquid propellants, such as high specific impulse, multiple ignition capabilities, and adjustable thrust, but also offers an advantage type of solid propellants, including reduced risk of leakage, long-term storage feasibility, and ease of maintenance. In this study, numerical simulations were conducted to investigate the atomization and mixing process of kerosene gel jets in high-speed crossflows. The study reveals that the jet breakup process primarily involves two forms of breakup: columnar breakup dominated by Rayleigh Taylor’s unstable wave and surface breakup dominated by Kelvin Helmholtz’s unstable wave. These two forms coexist, complement each other, and interact with each other. The numerical simulation of the kerosene gel breakup process provides favorable support for studying its combustion characteristics in the rotating detonation engine.

Multi-Scale methodology of breakup and atomization for liquid jets in crossflow

Liquid jets in crossflow represent a highly complex phenomenon, characterized by intricate interactions across multiple temporal and spatial scales spanning orders of magnitude. To better understand the atomization mechanisms and characteristics of liquid jets in crossflow, a hybrid multi-scale methodology, integrating volume of fluid and discrete phase models with an enhanced coupling algorithm based on Large Eddy Simulation, has been developed and implemented as a multiphase solver in OpenFOAM. This methodology enables the comprehensive reproduction of the atomization process, including primary breakup and secondary atomization, obviating the requirement for complex tunable atomization models. For further reducing computational costs, a parallel acceleration technology is proposed by integrating the adaptive mesh refinement with dynamic load balancing into the solver. The multi-scale methodology is validated against experimental data regarding the trajectory of the liquid jet, as well as the distribution of droplet sizes and velocities. The validated methodology is then used to predict the behavior of Jet-A in crossflow. Simulation results demonstrate that, under the multi-mode breakup regime, large droplets are formed through the deformation of ligaments, small droplets are stripped from threads, and even smaller droplets are generated after secondary breakup. In contrast, in the shear breakup mode, large droplets are directly squeezed from the sides of the liquid column, while smaller droplets are stripped from ligaments and threads. Additionally, compared to the multi-mode breakup, droplet diameters are smaller in the downstream field for the shear breakup mode.

Experimental and numerical investigations on micromixing performance of multi-orifice cross-flow jet mixers

Experimental and numerical investigations on micromixing performance of multi-orifice cross-flow jet mixers

Large Eddy Simulation of Separated Flows on Unconventionally Coarse Grids

Abstract We examine and benchmark the emerging idea of applying the large eddy simulation (LES) formalism to unconventionally coarse grids where Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) would be considered more appropriate at first glance. We distinguish this idea from very large eddy simulation and detached eddy simulation, which require switching between RANS and LES formalism. LES on RANS grid is appealing because first, it requires minimal changes to a production code; second, it is more cost-effective than LES; third, it converges to LES; and most importantly, it accurately predicts flows with separation. This work quantifies the benefit of LES on RANS-like grids as compared to RANS on the same grids. Three canonical cases are considered: periodic hill, backward-facing step, and jet in cross flow. We conduct direct numerical simulation (DNS), proper LES on LES grids, LES on RANS-quality grids, and RANS. We show that while the LES solutions on the RANS-quality grids are not grid converged, they are twice as accurate as the RANS on the same grids.

Flow Dynamics of a Dodecane Jet in Oxygen Crossflow at Supercritical Pressures

In advanced aeropropulsion engines, liquid fuel is often injected into the combustor at supercritical pressures, where flow dynamics are distinct from the subcritical counterpart. Large-eddy simulation, combined with real-fluid thermodynamics and transport processes of a liquid N-dodecane jet in oxygen crossflow, is presented at different supercritical pressures and jet-to-crossflow momentum flux ratios (J). Various vortical structures are discussed in detail. The results show that, with the same velocity ratio of 0.75, the upstream shear layer (USL) is absolutely unstable at high supercritical pressure (J=7.1) and convectively unstable at low supercritical pressure (J=13.2), consistent with the empirical criterion at subcritical pressures (Jcr≈10). While decreasing J to 7.1 at low supercritical pressure, however, the USL remains convectively unstable, manifested by the variable dominant Strouhal number of the USL along the upstream jet trajectory. Such abnormal behavior can be attributed to the real-fluid effect induced by strong density stratification at low supercritical pressure, under which an inflection point in the upstream mixing layer renders a large density gradient and tends to stabilize the USL. Linear stability analysis further verifies these findings. The analysis of spatial mixing deficiencies reveals that the mixing efficiency is enhanced at a higher J.