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Effect of tabs on the shear layer dynamics of a jet in cross-flow

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2023

Nicholas Morse
Affiliation:
Department of Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455, USA
Krishnan Mahesh*
Affiliation:
Department of Naval Architecture and Marine Engineering, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI 48109, USA
*
Email address for correspondence: krmahesh@umich.edu

Abstract

Direct numerical simulations (DNS) of a jet in cross-flow (JICF) with a triangular tab at two positions are performed at jet-to-cross-flow velocity ratios of $R = 2$ and $4$ with a jet Reynolds number of 2000 based on the jet's bulk velocity and exit diameter. The DNS and dynamic mode decomposition show the sensitivity of the tab's effect on the jet upstream shear layer (USL) structure and cross-section to $R$, echoing the experimental discoveries of Harris et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 918, 2021). Furthermore, DNS reveals that the presence of a tab placed on the upstream side of the nozzle significantly modifies the USL through production of streamwise vortices that curl around the spanwise vortex tubes originating from the primary instability of the USL. This provides an explanation for the improvement in mixing that has been associated with an upstream tab. The streamwise vortex structure shows remarkable similarities to the ‘strain-oriented vortex tubes’ observed for disturbed plane shear layers by Lasheras & Choi (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 189, 1988, pp. 53–86). For both $R$ cases, the USL instability is delayed, the jet penetration is reduced, and the jet cross-section is flattened, although the tab has a less pronounced effect on the USL structure at higher velocity ratios, where the formation of the streamwise vortices is delayed. In contrast, a tab placed 45$^\circ$ from the upstream position produces significantly different effects compared with the upstream tab. At $R = 4$, the jet cross-section is significantly skewed away from the tab and a tertiary vortex is formed, as observed in past studies of round JICFs at relatively high $R$ and low Reynolds numbers. The ability of the tab to produce a controllable steady-state tertiary vortex has implications for a variety of applications. The 45$^\circ$ tab produces asymmetric effects in the wake of the jet at $R = 2$, but the effect on the jet cross-section is much smaller, highlighting the sensitivity of jets at high $R$ to asymmetric perturbations.

Information

Type
JFM Papers
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press.
Figure 0

Figure 1. Computational domain for simulation of the JICF (taken from Regan & Mahesh 2019).

Figure 1

Figure 2. (a) Schematic of the tab overset grid where edges of the grid are shown in red and dimensions are provided for the overset grid boundaries and tab thickness. Panel (b) shows the top view of the upstream tab jet orifice with cross-sectional tab dimensions labelled.

Figure 2

Figure 3. Slice of the computational mesh on the centreplane ($z = 0$) for the upstream tab. The overlap between the background and tab grids is visible.

Figure 3

Figure 4. Instantaneous contours of $\omega _z D/\bar {U}_{{jet}}$ (ac), $p/\rho \bar {U}_{{jet}}^2$ (df) and $w/\bar {U}_{{jet}}$ (hj) on the centreplane ($z = 0$) of the jet at $R = 2$. Results for the non-tabbed jet of Iyer & Mahesh (2016) (a,d,g), upstream tab (b,e,h) and the 45$^\circ$ tab (cf,i) are shown.

Figure 4

Figure 5. Instantaneous contours of $\omega _z D/\bar {U}_{{jet}}$ (ac), $p/\rho \bar {U}_{{jet}}^2$ (df) and $w/\bar {U}_{{jet}}$ (hj) on the centreplane ($z = 0$) of the jet at $R = 4$. Results for the non-tabbed jet of Iyer & Mahesh (2016) (a,d,g), upstream tab (b,e,h) and the 45$^\circ$ tab (cf,i) are shown.

Figure 5

Figure 6. The USL spectra of fluctuating $y$-velocity at locations $s/D = 0.1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5$ (shown in warm to cool colours) for the upstream tab (a) and the 45$^\circ$ tab (b) at $R = 2$. The dominant shear layer Strouhal number is labelled. Corresponding spectra of the non-dimensional fluctuating tab drag, $F_y'/\bar {F}_y$, for each case are shown in panels (c) and (d).

Figure 6

Figure 7. The USL spectra of fluctuating $y$-velocity from Iyer & Mahesh (2016) shown with warm to cool colours for locations $s/D = 0.1, 1, 2, 3$ for $R = 2$ (a) and $s/D = 0.1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5$ for $R = 4$ (b). The dominant shear layer Strouhal number is labelled.

Figure 7

Figure 8. The USL spectra of fluctuating $y$-velocity at locations $s/D = 0.1, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5$ (shown in warm to cool colours) for the upstream tab (a) and the 45$^\circ$ tab (b) at $R = 4$. The dominant shear layer Strouhal number is labelled. Corresponding spectra of the non-dimensional fluctuating tab drag, $F_y'/\bar {F}_y$, for each case are shown in panels (c) and (d).

Figure 8

Figure 9. Iso-contours of instantaneous $Q$-criterion for the upstream tab at $R = 2$ (a,c) and $R = 4$ (b,d), coloured by $\omega _z D/\bar {U}_{{jet}}$ (a,b) and $\omega _y D/\bar {U}_{{jet}}$ (c,d).

Figure 9

Figure 10. Iso-contours of instantaneous $Q$-criterion for the non-tabbed jet of Iyer & Mahesh (2016) at $R = 2$ (a) and $R = 4$ (b), coloured by $\omega _z D/\bar {U}_{{jet}}$.

Figure 10

Figure 11. (a) Schematic of streamlines in the frame of reference of two adjacent spanwise vortices taken from Lasheras & Choi (1988), where the free stagnation point (0) and the principal direction of maximum positive strain (— ${\cdot }$ —) are shown. (b) Visualization of vortex structures from Lasheras & Choi (1988) under non-uniform mean shear.

Figure 11

Figure 12. Contours of $\omega _{\theta }$ (a), $\omega _r$ (b) and $\omega _y$ (c) for the upstream tab at $R = 2$ on the jet exit plane, non-dimensionalized by $D$ and $\bar {U}_{{jet}}$.

Figure 12

Figure 13. Illustration of the three-dimensional instability growth through stretching of the perturbation vorticity in the braid region between adjacent spanwise vortices in the shear layer coordinate system ($s$, $n$, $z$). (a) Initial vortex line perturbation in the $n$$z$ plane between spanwise vortices. (b) The vortex line is realigned with the principal axis of positive strain and stretched towards the adjacent spanwise vortex tubes, inducing a wavy undulation in the spanwise vortices. (c) The streamwise vortex loop is wrapped around the spanwise vortices. The directions of the induced flow from the streamwise vortex in the $-n$ and $\pm z$ directions are shown with green arrows.

Figure 13

Figure 14. Vortex tube with depiction of coordinates $\boldsymbol {e_{\omega }}$ and $\boldsymbol {e_t}$, as defined by $\boldsymbol {\omega }$ and $(\boldsymbol {\omega } \boldsymbol{\cdot} {\boldsymbol{\mathsf{S}}})$.

Figure 14

Figure 15. Iso-contours of vortex stretching magnitude $\mathcal {V}_s = 30 (D/\bar {U}_{{jet}})^2$ (red) and $\mathcal {V}_s = -30 (D/\bar {U}_{{jet}})^2$ (blue) (a,b) and vortex tilting magnitude $\mathcal {V}_t = 30 (D/\bar {U}_{{jet}})^2$ (green) (c,d). All figures also show iso-contours of $\omega _z = \pm 8 D/\bar {U}_{{jet}}$ (white, grey) to show the upstream and downstream shear layers. Results are shown for $R = 2$ (a,c) and $R = 4$ (b,d) with the upstream tab.

Figure 15

Figure 16. Iso-contours of instantaneous $Q$-criterion for the 45$^\circ$ tab at $R = 2$ (a) and $R = 4$ (b), coloured by $\omega _z D/\bar {U}_{{jet}}$.

Figure 16

Figure 17. Iso-contours of instantaneous $Q$-criterion coloured by $\omega _z D/\bar {U}_{{jet}}$ for the left side of the jet ($z \le 0$). The non-tabbed jet of Iyer & Mahesh (2016) (a,d), as well as the upstream tab (b,e) and the 45$^\circ$ tab (cf) configurations are shown for $R = 2$ (ac) and $R = 4$ (df).

Figure 17

Figure 18. DMD eigenspectra for $R = 2$ (a,b) and $R = 4$ (c,d) with the upstream tab (a,c) and the 45$^\circ$ tab (b,d).

Figure 18

Figure 19. The DMD mode corresponding to the dominant Strouhal number for $R = 2$ with the upstream tab (a,e) and 45$^\circ$ tab (bf), as well as $R = 4$ with the upstream (c,g) and 45$^\circ$ tab (d,h). Modes are shown with iso-contours of positive (red) and negative (blue) $x$-velocity (ad) and $z$-velocity (eh).

Figure 19

Figure 20. Top view of the DMD mode corresponding to the dominant Strouhal number for $R = 2$ with the upstream tab (a) and 45$^\circ$ tab (b), as well as $R = 4$ with the upstream (c) and 45$^\circ$ tab (d). Modes are shown with iso-contours of positive (red) and negative (blue) $x$-velocity.

Figure 20

Figure 21. Contours of $k$ (ac), $\overline {p'^2}$ (df) and $\overline {w'^2}$ (gi) normalized by $\rho$ and $\bar {U}_{{jet}}$ on the centreplane for $R = 2$. Mean streamlines from the upstream edge, centre and downstream edge of the nozzle are shown as solid black lines and the contour line for $\bar {u} = 0$ (– – – – –) is shown to mark recirculation zones. Results are shown for the non-tabbed jet from Regan & Mahesh (2019) (a,d,g), the upstream tab (b,e,h) and the 45$^\circ$ tab (cf,$i$).

Figure 21

Figure 22. Contours of $k$ (ac), $\overline {p'^2}$ (df) and $\overline {w'^2}$ (gi) normalized by $\rho$ and $\bar {U}_{{jet}}$ on the centreplane for $R = 4$. Mean streamlines from the upstream edge, centre and downstream edge of the nozzle are shown as solid black lines and the contour line for $\bar {u} = 0$ (– – – – –) is shown to mark recirculation zones. Results are shown for the non-tabbed jet from Regan & Mahesh (2019) (a,d,g), the upstream tab (b,e,h) and the 45$^\circ$ tab (cf,i).

Figure 22

Figure 23. Profiles of $k$ (a,b) and $\overline {w'^2}$ (c,d) for $R = 2$ (a,c) and $R = 4$ (b,d). Profiles were extracted from a streamline originating at the upstream edge of the jet exit on the jet exit plane (note that the streamline for the upstream tab originates from the tab apex). Results for the non-tabbed jet of Regan & Mahesh (2019) ($\cdot \cdot \cdot \cdot \cdot \cdot \cdot \cdot \cdot \cdot$), the upstream tab (———) and the 45$^\circ$ tab (– – – – –) are shown.

Figure 23

Figure 24. Profiles of $k$ (a,b) and $\overline {w'^2}$ (c,d) for $R = 2$ (a,c) and $R = 4$ (b,d). Profiles were extracted from a streamline originating at the downstream edge of the jet exit on the jet exit plane. Results for the non-tabbed jet of Regan & Mahesh (2019) ($\cdot \cdot \cdot \cdot \cdot \cdot \cdot \cdot \cdot \cdot$), the upstream tab (———) and the 45$^\circ$ tab (– – – – –) are shown.

Figure 24

Figure 25. Contours of $\bar {\omega }_x D/\bar {U}_{{jet}}$ on a slice at $x/D = 4$ for $R = 2$ (ac) and $R = 4$ (df). Results are shown for the non-tabbed jet from Regan & Mahesh (2019) (a,d), the upstream tab (b,e) and the 45$^\circ$ tab (cf).

Figure 25

Figure 26. Contours of $\bar {w}$ normalized by $\bar {U}_{{jet}}$ on the centreplane for $R = 2$ (a) and $R = 4$ (b) for the 45$^\circ$ tab. The mean spanwise velocity for the symmetric jet configurations (non-tabbed jet and upstream tab) averages to zero on the symmetry plane. Mean streamlines from the upstream edge, centre and downstream edge of the nozzle are shown as solid black lines and the contour line for $\bar {u} = 0$ (– – – – –) is shown to mark recirculation zones.

Figure 26

Figure 27. Jet trajectory along the centre streamline originating from $(x,y,z) = (0,0,0)$ (a) and difference in jet penetration vs the non-tabbed jet of Regan & Mahesh (2019) (b). Accompanying profiles of velocity magnitude (c,d) and turbulent kinetic energy (ef) are plotted along the centre streamline vs distance from the jet exit, $s$. Results for the upstream tab (———), 45$^\circ$ tab (– – – – –) and the non-tabbed jet from Regan & Mahesh (2019) ($\cdot \cdot \cdot \cdot \cdot \cdot \cdot \cdot \cdot \cdot$) are shown, with results for $R = 2$ appearing in blue and results for $R = 4$ appearing in red. A slope of $-$1 is plotted in panel (d), corresponding to the classic turbulent round jet centreline velocity decay, while a slope of $-1.83$ is plotted in panel ( f), corresponding to the value from similarity analysis of Sadeghi et al. (2015) for the decay of centreline turbulent kinetic energy of finite-$Re_j$ regular jets.

Figure 27

Figure 28. Surface streamlines on the nozzle and tab surfaces for the upstream tab at $R = 2$ (a) and $R = 4$ (b) and the 45$^\circ$ tab at $R = 2$ (c) and $R = 4$ (d). Note that the azimuthal coordinate is defined as $\phi = \textrm {arctan}(-z/x)$ such that $\phi = 0^\circ$ corresponds to the upstream side of the nozzle.

Figure 28

Figure 29. Variation of jet boundary layer radial momentum thickness at the jet exit plane vs $\phi = \textrm {arctan}(-z/x)$ for $R = 2$ (a) and $R = 4$ (b). Note that $\phi = 0^\circ$ corresponds to the upstream side of the nozzle. Results for the upstream tab (———), 45$^\circ$ tab (– – – – –) and the non-tabbed jet from Regan & Mahesh (2019) ($\cdot \cdot \cdot \cdot \cdot \cdot \cdot \cdot \cdot \cdot$) are shown.

Figure 29

Figure 30. Evolution of the CVP along the $x$-direction for the 45$^\circ$ tab, coloured by $\bar {\omega }_x D/\bar {U}_{{jet}}$. Contour lines are also plotted for $\bar {\omega }_x D/\bar {U}_{{jet}} = \pm 0.06$. Results for $R = 2$ (ad) and $R = 4$ (eh) are shown.

Figure 30

Figure 31. Evolution of the CVP along the $x$-direction for the 45$^\circ$ tab at $R = 4$, with contours of $\bar {u}/U_{\infty }$ (ad) and $k/\bar {U}_{{jet}}$ (eh). Contour lines of $\bar {\omega }_x D/\bar {U}_{{jet}} = \pm 0.06$ are also shown on each plot to visualize the CVP and tertiary vortex locations.

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Morse and Mahesh Supplementary Movie Captions and Supplementary Centerplane Statistics

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