Analysis of isothermal annular jets: Comparison of computational fluid dynamics and experimental data

A computational fluid dynamics technique was developed for the simulation of airflow through an annular jet. The technique used a commercial simulation package with a Reynolds stress model for the simulation of turbulent flows. The model parameters were calibrated using available experimental data for circular and annular jets. It was found that, after this calibration, the computational results agreed well with experimental data (specifically, with the velocity magnitude, velocity decay rate, and the velocity spreading rate). The jet geometry studied was based on industrial melt‐blowing nozzles. The velocities studied varied from the low subsonic incompressible range to nearly sonic conditions. Based on both the computational and experimental results, a correlation was proposed that predicts the centerline velocity profiles in both the near‐ and far‐field regions. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci 94: 909–922, 2004