Effect of turbulent coflows on the dynamics of turbulent twin jets

Abstract

The impact of turbulent coflows on the dynamics of turbulent twin round jets is investigated experimentally. Parallel twin jets, at three jet spacing values and two Reynolds number/jet-to-coflow velocity ratios, were released into turbulent coflows with two distinct levels of turbulence intensity. Velocity measurements were made using acoustic Doppler velocimetry. An increase in the coflow turbulence intensity leads to an earlier merging and combining of the jets and also accelerates the rate of decay with downstream distance of the mean centerline excess velocity of the jets. The mean velocity on the symmetry line, for different values of jet spacing, ratios of jet exit velocity to coflow mean velocity, and coflow turbulence intensity, is self-similar when scaled by the maximum mean velocity on the symmetry line and the corresponding streamwise distance. Moreover, as the turbulence level of the coflow intensifies, the turbulence intensity along the symmetry line of the jets increases. The longitudinal integral length scale on the symmetry line of the twin jets decreases as the coflow turbulence intensity increases. The energy spectra of the coflowing twin jets show that the turbulence in the coflow transfers the energy contained by the larger scales to the smaller scales at a greater rate than that which occurs for jets in a quiescent background. However, as the jet spacing increases, less energy is transferred to the smaller scales.