Experimental Study of Swirling Jets and Axial Forcing on Round Jets

In jets, swirl can significantly enhance growth and mixing. This can lead to better chemical process efficiencies, increased combustion completeness, lower exhaust plume temperatures, and reduction in pollutant by-products. Exciting natural instabilities can enhance mixing further. Past research on forcing of swirling jets resulted in limited change in flow behavior. This could be attributed to either low Reynolds numbers or imposed modes that were solely axial or azimuthal. In our experiment, both round and free swirling jets are created by independently controlling the axial and azimuthal momentum injection rates; the resulting water stream discharges into a large tank. Axial forcing on a round jet is varied for Strouhal number ranging from 0 to 0.45 and Reynolds number, Re, of 5,700 for small amplitudes. An unforced swirling jet is also presented for Re of 1,100 and 5,800 with a Swirl of 0.05. While the highest Reynolds number studied here is relevant to industrial applications, there is a dearth of experimental data in this range. Flow structures in the shear layer are identified with PLIF. Fluorescent dye is injected uniformly in the circumference of the boundary layer; this allows visualizing the effect of forcing and swirl on the shear layer in the near and far field. The results offer insight into controlling the spacing of the vortex rings formed by axial forcing.