Characteristics of a supersonic elliptic jet

Comparative mixing of a Mach 2 elliptical free jet from a convergent-divergent elliptic nozzle with an aspect ratio of 2:1 in the presence of adverse and marginally favourable pressure gradients has been studied experimentally. It is found that the mixing of the elliptical jet is higher than that for the equivalent circular jet at all the levels of expansion. The decay of elliptic jet is significantly higher than the equivalent circular jet in all three zones of the jet field – the core, characteristic decay and fully developed regions. The reason for the faster decay of the elliptic jet is found to be the continuous variation in the size of the mixing-promoting vortices shed from the nozzle exit owing to its azimuthal asymmetry. The evolution of the jet and its axis-switching phenomenon has been studied using iso-pitot pressure contours taken at different axial locations in the plane normal to the jet axis. As expected, the elliptic jet spreads faster along the minor axis plane than the major axis plane, leading to axis-switching at all the levels of expansion studied. The axis-switching of the elliptic jet shifts upstream with increase in nozzle pressure ratio (NPR) from 4 to 5; from 5 to 7, it shifts downstream. But at marginally under-expanded condition of NPR 8, the axis-switching is found to shift slightly upstream. The occurrence of axis-switching in the elliptic jet indicates enhanced near-field mixing, compared to the equivalent circular jet. The shadowgraph pictures of the jet reveal that the waves prevailing in the elliptic jet are significantly weaker than those in the circular jet.