Experimental investigation of the penetration of a high-velocity gas jet through a liquid surface

Abstract

This investigation is concerned with the phenomenon of a gas jet impinging on and penetrating into a liquid. The study has been restricted to the cases of circular and plane jets penetrating a liquid at right angles. Both ‘free streamline’ and turbulent jets were considered. The phenomenon was analysed from two viewpoints. The first, a stagnation-pressure analysis, related the depth of the surface depression or cavity to the stagnation pressure based on the centre-line velocity of the jet in the neighbourhood of the surface. The second, a displaced-liquid analysis, related the weight of the liquid displaced from the cavity to the momentum of the jet.Numerous experiments were conducted in which the cavity depth, diameter or width, and peripheral lip height were measured. The role of surface tension in affecting the cavity depth was considered and the phenomenon of drop formation was examined. Some attention was given to the case of a plane jet impinging on a moving liquid. It was found that the experimental data fit into the framework of these analyses quite consistently.