Turbulent Mixing Process of a Round Jet With Slot Lobes

Turbulent mixing in the near region of a round jet with three slot lobes is examined via mean velocity and turbulent statistics and structures at a Reynolds number of 15,000. The design utilizes separate flow motivations upstream of each geometric feature, deviating from conventional nozzles or orifice plates. Immediate outlet velocity profiles are heavily influenced by opposing pressure gradients between the neighboring round and slot streams. Spanwise mean velocity profiles reveal the majority of the convective exchange between a given slot and the round center occurs in the immediate near field, but has lasting effects on the axial centerline profiles downstream. This is also reflected by the velocity half-widths, exhibiting asymmetry across the entirety of available measurements. Centerline turbulence intensities exhibit strong and short-lived isotropy. The increasingly anisotropic intensities found downstream are lower than similar geometries from the literature, implying that mixing development is inhibited. Reynolds stresses at the round-slot interface are significantly smaller than the round-stagnant exchange, but achieve a symmetric condition at x/D ≅ 4. Two-point spatial correlations of the fluctuating streamwise velocity exhibit stronger dependence toward the axial centerline at the round-slot interface in comparison to the nominal round radius. In contrast, spanwise velocity fluctuations exhibit nearly identical, localized behaviors on each side of the jet. Corresponding differences in streamwise integral length scale peak in the range 1.0 ≤ x/D ≤ 1.5, and so too do the turbulent structures in this area, as a result of the collated jet geometry.