Near-field mixing of jets issuing from an array of round nozzles

•Study of the flow field in the near zone of multiple interacting (confluent) jets.•The effects of jet converging and merging on mean velocity and turbulence are presented.•Sources of production of turbulent kinetic energy strongly depend of jet position.•The shear layer development is affected by mean flow curvature.•The near zone of confluent jets is shown to be Reynolds number dependent. This article presents results of an experimental study of the confluence of low Reynolds number jets in the near field of a 6×6 in-line array of round nozzles. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and Laser Doppler Anemometry (LDA) were employed to measure mean velocities and turbulence statistics. The comparison of the results from PIV and LDA measurements along different cross-sectional profiles and geometrical centerlines showed good agreement. However, LDA enabled more accurate results very close to the nozzle exits. The evolution of all the individual jets in the array into a single jet showed flow regions similar to twin jets (i.e., initial, converging including mixing transition, merging and combined regions). The lateral displacements play an important role for a confluent jet, where all jets to some degree are deflected towards the center of the nozzle plate. The jet development in terms of velocity decay, length of potential core and lateral displacement varies significantly with the position of the jet in the array. A comparison with single jet and twin jets flow showed considerable differences in velocity decay as well as location and velocity in the combined point. The flow field of confluent jets showed asymmetrical distributions of Reynolds stresses around the axis of the jets and highly anisotropic turbulence. Additionally, the lateral displacement as well as the turbulence development in the proximal region of the studied confluent jet was shown to be dependent on Reynolds number.