Large eddy simulation of a circular jet: effect of inflow conditions on the near field

Abstract

In the present study, the effects of the jet inflow conditions such as the initial momentum thickness (θ) and background disturbances on the downstream evolution of a circular jet are investigated using large eddy simulation (LES). We consider four different initial momentum thicknesses,D/θ = 50, 80, 120 and 180, and three different Reynolds numbers,ReD=UJD/ν = 3600, 104and 105, whereUJis the jet inflow velocity andDis the jet diameter. The present study shows that the jet characteristics significantly depend on both the initial momentum thickness and the Reynolds number. For all the Reynolds numbers considered in this study, vortex rings are generated at an earlier position with decreasing initial momentum thickness. In case of a relatively low Reynolds number ofReD= 3600, at smaller initial momentum thickness, early growth of the shear layer due to the early generation of vortex ring leads to the occurrence of large-scale coherent structures in earlier downstream locations, which results in larger mixing enhancement and more rapid increase in turbulence intensity. However, at a high Reynolds number such asReD= 105, with decreasing initial momentum thickness, rapid growth of the shear layer leads to the saturation of the shear layer and the generation of fine-scale turbulence structures, which reduces mixing and turbulence intensity. With increasingReθ(=UJθ/ν), the characteristic frequency corresponding to the shear layer mode (Stθ=fθ/UJ) gradually increases and reaches near 0.017 predicted from the inviscid instability theory. On the other hand, the frequency corresponding to the jet-preferred mode (StD=f D/UJ) varies depending onReDandD/θ. From a mode analysis, we show that, in view of the energy of the axial velocity fluctuations integrated over the radial direction, the double-helix mode (mode 2) becomes dominant past the potential core, but the axisymmetric mode (mode 0) is dominant near the jet exit. In view of the local energy, the disturbances grow along the shear layer near the jet exit: for thick shear layer, mode 0 grows much faster than other modes, but modes 0–3 grow almost simultaneously for thin shear layer. However, past the potential core, the dominant mode changes from mode 0 near the centreline to mode 1 and then to mode 2 with increasing radial direction regardless of the initial shear layer thickness.