Experimental and Numerical Investigations of Jet Control for Combustion Applications

The purpose of the present study is to quantify experimentally the effects of forcing on the aerodynamic field in a model configuration : a non reactive jet of air. Such configurations are found in many combustion systems and constitute basic elements for many active control strategies. In the present work, jet control is achieved by adding either steady or pulsated swirl to the main jet through the actuators system. Results show that one of the strongest effects of the actuator is to enhance the mixing of the jet with the ambient fluid. This effect can be noted even if the flow rate in the actuator is low. A second aspect of research for this actuator is to use it in an unsteady regime to use smaller flow rates and minimize the control cost.