A flow field study of an elliptic jet in cross flow using DPIV technique

The digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV) technique has been used to investigate the flow fields of an elliptic jet in cross flow (EJICF). Two different jet orientations are considered; one with the major axis of the ellipse aligned with the cross flow (henceforth referred to as a low aspect ratio (AR) jet), and the other with the major axis normal to the cross flow (henceforth referred to as a high aspect ratio jet). Results show that the vortex-pairing phenomenon is prevalent in the low aspect ratio jet when the velocity ratio (VR)3, and is absent in the high aspect ratio jet regardless of the velocity ratio. The presence of vortex pairing leads to a substantial increase in the leading-edge peak vorticity compared to the lee-side vorticity, which suggests that vortex pairing may play an important role in the entrainment of ambient fluid into the jet body, at least in the near-field region. In the absence of vortex pairing, both the leading-edge and the lee-side peak vorticity increase monotonically with velocity ratio regardless of the aspect ratio. Moreover, time-averaged velocity fields for both AR=0.5 and AR=2 jets reveal the existence of an unstable focus (UF) downstream of the jet, at least for VR2. The strength and the location of this focus is a function of both the velocity ratio and aspect ratio. In addition, time-averaged vorticity fields show a consistently higher peak-averaged vorticity in the low aspect ratio jet than in the high aspect ratio jet. This behavior could be due to a higher curvature of the vortex filament facing the cross flow in the low aspect ratio jet, which through mutual interaction may lead to higher vortex stretching, and therefore higher peak-averaged vorticity.Nomenclature A nozzle or jet cross-sectional area - AR aspect ratio, defined as the ratio of the nozzle cross-stream dimension to its streamwise dimension, =H/L - D characteristic jet diameter (for circular jet only) - D_h hydraulic diameter, =4A/P - D_major major axis of an elliptic nozzle - D_minor minor axis of an elliptic nozzle - H cross-stream dimension of the nozzle - L streamwise dimension of the nozzle - P perimeter of the nozzle - Re_j jet Reynolds number, =V_jD/ - VR velocity ratio, =V_j/V - V_j mean jet velocity - V mean cross-flow velocity - x downstream distance from jet center - X cross-plane vorticity - kinematic viscosity