Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “wake characterization”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 271 records · Page 15

Circadian and Fatigue Effects on the Dynamics of the Pupillary Light Reflex

The pupillary light reflex (PLR) is known to be driven by the photo-entrainment of intrinsically-photosensitive retinal ganglion cells. These ganglion cells are known to have retino-hypothalamic projections to the suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN), which regulates circadian rhythms, and bilateral retinal projections to the pretectal area, which mediates the PLR (Dacey et al., 2005; Hattar et al., 2002, 2006). The magnitude of the PLR has previously been shown to show circadian variation (Mnch et al., 2012). In this study, we used a constant routine protocol (Mills et al., 1978) to examine circadian and fatigue effects on the dynamics of the PLR. We characterized the PLR (pupil size as a function of time) in response to a square-wave change in the luminance of a white display background, at ten different times over a single circadian cycle. Twelve subjects participated in three daytime baseline runs followed by 7 nighttime runs each separated by an hour (17 23 hours after awakening). The constriction and dilation phases of the PLR waveform were fit separately with a single exponential model (Longtin Milton, 1988; Milton Longtin, 1990) with time constants estimated using a least-squares method. The dilation time constant exhibited a distinct sinusoidal modulation across the circadian cycle and, after 23 hours of wakefulness, decreased on average by 82 ms (paired t-test, p 0.05) relative to baseline (mean: 543 ms). The constriction time constant however, did not show an overall decrease with increased wakefulness. We conclude that the dynamics of the PLR show circadian variation and that, in addition, the briskness of the dilation response to a step-decrease in luminance shows a homeostatic enhancement with increased wakefulness.

human performance↗

On possibility of low-emittance high-energy muon source based on plasma wakefield acceleration

We report plasma wakefield acceleration (PWA) channels are characterized by very high accelerating gradients and very strong focusing fields. We propose to employ these properties for effective production of low emittance high energy muon beams, consider muon beam dynamics in the PWFA cell and analyze various options and potential of the PWA-based muon sources.

43 PARTICLE ACCELERATORS↗

Correlation between ferroelectricity and ferroelectric orthorhombic phase of Hf x Zr 1-x O 2 thin films using synchrotron x-ray analysis

The change in the interplanar spacing ( d -spacing) including the ferroelectric orthorhombic (O) phase in the low-temperature fabricated Hf x Zr 1-x O 2 (HZO) films was studied using synchrotron grazing-incidence wide-angle x-ray scattering analysis. The 10-nm-thick HZO films were fabricated by thermal and plasma-enhanced atomic layer deposition (TH- and PE-ALD) methods using H 2 O gas and O 2 plasma as oxidants, respectively, and a post-metallization annealing (PMA) was performed at 300–400 °C. The d -spacing of the mixture of (111)-, (101)-, and (111)-planes of O, tetragonal (T), and cubic (C) phases, respectively, for the TH- and PE-ALD HZO films increased up to 2.99 Å with an increase in PMA temperature, while the d -spacing estimated by conventional x-ray diffraction was 2.92 Å regardless of the PMA temperature. The remanent polarization (2 P r = P r + - P r - ) of the HZO films increased as the PMA temperature increased. It is clear that the 2 P r value satisfied a linear relationship as a function of the d -spacing of O(111)/T(101)/C(111) phases. Furthermore, the wake-up effect was found to depend on the ferroelectric O phase formation. The wake-up effect was significantly reduced in both the TH- and PE-ALD HZO films after the PMA at 400 °C due to the increase in the ferroelectric O phase formation. The leakage current density ( J )–electric field properties of the PE-ALD HZO film with the lowest d -spacing were divided into three steps, such as low, middle, and large J values, in the wake-up (10 3 cycles), pristine (10 0 cycle), and fatigue (10 7 cycles) states, respectively. Therefore, an analysis of the ferroelectric O phase is very important for understanding the ferroelectricity including endurance.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

Identification and Reduction of Interactional Noise of a Quadcopter in Hover and Forward Flight Conditions

Advanced Air Mobility is a vision for a safe, accessible, and sustainable aviation system to transport people and cargo between places not served by traditional aviation. With this emerging transportation industry, there is motivation to characterize the noise of vehicles to determine their potential impacts on the community. An experimental testing campaign was conducted on a representative model of a small unmanned aircraft system in the NASA Langley Low Speed Aeroacoustic Wind Tunnel as a continuation of a previous testing campaign. The goals of the current test are to identify sources of interactional noise as well as to test custom-designed rotors and noise reduction devices. The tested noise reduction methods involve increasing the vertical distances between the rotors and the vehicle airframe as well as between the forward and aft rotor disk planes. These methods are intended to reduce rotor-airframe interaction noise in hover and fore-aft rotor wake ingestion noise in forward flight. A phased microphone array is also utilized to identify the locations of prominent noise generation for the different vehicle configurations in forward flight. Elevation of the rotors from the vehicle airframe yielded nearly 8 dBA overall noise reduction in forward flight, while yielding up to 4 dB reduction in overall tonal levels for one of the rotors in hover.

Nikolas S Zawodny↗

Averaging techniques for steady and unsteady calculations of a transonic fan stage

It is often desirable to characterize a turbomachinery flow field with a few lumped parameters such as total pressure ratio or stage efficiency. Various averaging schemes may be used to compute these parameters. Here three averaging schemes, the momentum, energy, and area averaging schemes, are described and compared for two computed solutions of the midspan section of a transonic fan stage: a steady averaging-plane solution in which average rotor outflow conditions were used as stator inflow conditions and an unsteady rotor-stator interaction solution. The unsteady solution is described, some unsteady flow phenomena are discussed and the steady pressure distributions are compared. Despite large unsteady pressure fluctuations on the stator surface, the steady pressure distribution matched the average unsteady distribution almost exactly. Stator wake profiles, stator loss coefficient, and stage efficiency were computed for the two solutions with the three averaging schemes and are compared. In general the energy averaging scheme gave good agreement between the averaging-plane solution and the time-averaged unsteady solution, even though certain phenomena due to unsteady wake migration were neglected.

Wyss, M. L.↗

Electrical Behavior of Combinatorial Thin-Film Zr x Ta 1−x O y

Combinatorial magnetron sputtering and electrical characterization were used to systematically study the impact of compositional changes in the resistive switching of transition metal oxides, specifically the Zr x Ta 1−x O y system. Current-voltage behavior across a range of temperatures provided insights into the mechanisms that contribute to differences in the electrical conductivity of the pristine Ta 2 O 5 and ZrO 2 , and mixed Zr x Ta 1−x O y devices. The underlying conductive mechanism was found to be a mixture of charge trapping and ionic motion, where charge trapping/emission dictated the short-term cycling behavior while ion motion contributed to changes in the conduction with increased cycling number. ToF-SIMS was used to identify the origin of the “wake-up” behavior of the devices, revealing an ionic motion contribution. This understanding of how cation concentration affects conduction in mixed valence systems helps provide a foundation for a new approach toward manipulating resistive switching in these active layer materials.

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE↗

The Plasma Wave Environment of Europa

The Galileo spacecraft has executed nine close flybys of Jupiter's moon Europa for which plasma wave observations were obtained. This paper presents an analysis of the observations from these flybys taking into consideration the variable geometry of the trajectories in an attempt to characterize the general plasma-wave environment associated with the interaction of the Jovian magnetosphere with the moon. A wide variety of plasma-wave phenomena are found to be associated with this interaction. While there are apparently temporal variations which complicate the analysis, a crude model of the distribution of these phenomena around Europa is derived. Primarily on the upstream side of Europa, and working inward to the moon, electron-cyclotron harmonics are first observed, followed by a region within about two Europa radii of the moon with whistler-mode hiss or chorus, and culminating in a region closest to the moon where a band at the upper hybrid resonance frequency is sometimes enhanced over its ambient intensity. The wake region is approximately two Europa radii across and comprises a broadband, highly variable, and bursty electrostatic phenomenon. Upon closer inspection, these bursty emissions appear as solitary structures similar to those in Earth's auroral zone and plasma sheet boundary layer. In addition to the survey of wave phenomena in the vicinity of Europa, we provide density profiles derived primarily from the upper hybrid resonance frequency which is readily apparent throughout most of each of the flybys. Finally, we suggest that the whistler mode, electron cyclotron harmonic, and upper hybrid resonance emissions are driven by some combination of factors including variations in the magnetic field near Europa and the loss and production of plasma at Europa as a result of the interaction of the Jovian magnetosphere with the moon. By analogy with studies of the ion and electron holes and broadband electrostatic noise at Earth and Jupiter, we argue that the electrostatic solitary structures in the wake are associated with currents and beams coupling Europa to Jupiter's ionosphere.

Kurth, W. S.↗

Southern Company Services: Project 2: Tall Tower Wind Technical Potential for the Southeast (Modifications 4, 5), Project 4: Offshore Wind Potential for Southern Company Services (Modifications 7, 8)

Project 2: The National Laboratory of the Rockies (NLR) and Southern Company Services (SCS) seek to establish an agreement to assess the technical potential for wind energy in the Southeastern U.S. SCS has requested that NLR conduct a detailed assessment of system performance, available capacity, transmission distance, and levelized cost of electricity (LCOE) at turbine hub heights of 100m to 160m within the SCS service territory. NLR will also provide an assessment of utility photovoltaic (PV) technical potential within the SCS service territory. NLR has unique modeling capabilities to assist SCS with high spatial and temporal resolution assessment of wind and PV technical potential, considering geospatial constraints. Project 4: NLR and SCS seek to develop a spatially explicit techno-economic assessment for offshore wind energy in the Southeastern U.S. The analysis aims to characterize the regional sensitivities of offshore wind plant costs and performance, underwater cabling, potential siting constraints, and landfall spur transmission costs.

17 WIND ENERGY↗

Sustained attention performance during sleep deprivation: evidence of state instability

Nathaniel Kleitman was the first to observe that sleep deprivation in humans did not eliminate the ability to perform neurobehavioral functions, but it did make it difficult to maintain stable performance for more than a few minutes. To investigate variability in performance as a function of sleep deprivation, n = 13 subjects were tested every 2 hours on a 10-minute, sustained-attention, psychomotor vigilance task (PVT) throughout 88 hours of total sleep deprivation (TSD condition), and compared to a control group of n = 15 subjects who were permitted a 2-hour nap every 12 hours (NAP condition) throughout the 88-hour period. PVT reaction time means and standard deviations increased markedly among subjects and within each individual subject in the TSD condition relative to the NAP condition. TSD subjects also had increasingly greater performance variability as a function of time on task after 18 hours of wakefulness. During sleep deprivation, variability in PVT performance reflected a combination of normal timely responses, errors of omission (i.e., lapses), and errors of commission (i.e., responding when no stimulus was present). Errors of omission and errors of commission were highly intercorrelated across deprivation in the TSD condition (r = 0.85, p = 0.0001), suggesting that performance instability is more likely to include compensatory effort than a lack of motivation. The marked increases in PVT performance variability as sleep loss continued supports the "state instability" hypothesis, which posits that performance during sleep deprivation is increasingly variable due to the influence of sleep initiating mechanisms on the endogenous capacity to maintain attention and alertness, thereby creating an unstable state that fluctuates within seconds and that cannot be characterized as either fully awake or asleep.

Non-NASA Center↗

Effects of Atmosphere and Ocean Horizontal Model Resolution on Tropical Cyclone and Upper-Ocean Response Forecasts in Four Major Hurricanes

A coupled atmosphere–ocean model is necessary for tropical cyclone (TC) prediction to accurately characterize ocean feedback on atmospheric processes within the TC environment. Here, the ECMWF coupled global model is run at horizontal resolutions from 9 to 1.4 km in the atmosphere, as well as 25 and 8 km in the ocean, to identify how resolution impacts forecast accuracy of four observed major TCs in the Atlantic: Irma, Florence, Teddy, and Ida. Most of the resolutions used here are unprecedented for global models. GOES-16 and synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellite images and best track data are used for atmospheric validation. Salinity and temperature observations from Air-Launched Autonomous Micro-Observer (ALAMO) floats are used to validate modeled upper-ocean response, including mixed layer deepening, sea surface cooling, and near-inertial waves in the wakes of TCs. Increasing atmospheric resolution leads to more realistic TC structure and stronger winds, significantly improving TC intensity forecasts and modestly improving track errors. Ocean resolution impacts the upper-ocean response but does not influence atmospheric forecasts for the fast-moving TCs considered here. Stronger mixing, sea surface cooling, and near-inertial oscillations are found for both higher atmosphere and ocean resolutions, provided the initial upper-ocean state is the same for the two ocean resolutions. Whether this agrees better with the ALAMO observations also depends on the realism of the initial upper-ocean state in the model, emphasizing the importance of ocean initialization for the accurate upper-ocean response. Overall, the model at all resolutions correctly predicts stronger mixing, surface cooling, and near-inertial oscillation amplitudes to the right of a TC center, as observed by ALAMO floats.

Atmosphere-ocean interaction↗

Mars Sample Return, Sample Retrieval Lander, Reaction Control System Jet Interaction Supersonic Wind Tunnel Test Overview with CFD Predictions

NASA's Mars Sample Return campaign will be launching several missions over the next decade that will work together to return rock samples from Mars back to Earth. The Sample Retrieval Lander (SRL) will deliver the Mars Ascent Vehicle and fetch rover to the surface of Mars in 2006. Rock samples collected by the Mars 2020 Perseverance rover, landing in early 2021, will be loaded on the the ascent vehicle to be launched into Mars orbit for retrieval by yet another spacecraft. The Sample Retrieval Lander will be a blunt entry capsule similar to past Mars entry vehicles like Mars Science Laboratory and Viking. The vehicle will fly a guided entry, using a small lift vector produced by a non-zero trim angle of attack to eliminate downrange and crossrange position errors at the point of parachute deploy. This energy and heading management is achieved with a reaction control system (RCS) that directs the bank angle of the vehicle and also minimizes unwanted capsule dynamics. The reaction control system and control design is based on the Mars Science Laboratory and Mars 2020 RCS systems. However, due to packaging constraints, the backshell of this new entry vehicle has a different geometry than those earlier designs. To certify the RCS system for flight the project must characterize the jet plume interactions with the capsule backshell that could impair or significantly augment the RCS control authority. This characterization will be done through a combination of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis and wind tunnel test. Two candidate arrangements of the RCS jets have been identified for the SRL vehicle and are currently under evaluation before final selection. The aero/RCS plume interactions of these candidate configurations have been measured in a supersonic wind tunnel test in NASA Langley's Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel. The test was conducted in the fall of 2020 and data is currently being reduced. An overview of the candidate RCS configurations are presented here with an overview of the wind tunnel model design, jet scaling and scaled nozzle design, and the test matrix. Preliminary CFD runs are presented with an assessment of the predicted plumes and their interaction with the wake flow of the vehicle. The predicted effects of the model sting is provided as well. This high fidelity wind tunnel test is being conducted much earlier in the SRL project than would normally be done. The test was funded as part of a CFD evaluation task funded by NASA's Aerosciences Evaluation and Test Capabilities Project. The objective of the evaluation task was to compare the ability of CFD to predict complex flows with data that can be measured in the Langley Unitary Plan Wind Tunnel. RCS Jet interactions were selected as a type of complex flow that is important to NASA missions. In addition to providing useful data to the SRL project, there was added emphasis on quantifying the accuracy of the CFD predictions and wind tunnel test data. An overview of the uncertainty quantification methodologies for computational and experimental portions of this test is presented.

blunt body↗

Flow in the Proximity of the Pin-Tool in Friction Stir Welding and Its Relation to Weld Homogeneity

In the Friction Stir Welding (FSW) process a rotating pin inserted into a seam literally stirs the metal from each side of the seam together. It is proposed that the flow in the vicinity of the pin-tool comprises a primary rapid shear over a cylindrical envelope covering the pin-tool and a relatively slow secondary flow taking the form of a ring vortex about the tool circumference. This model is consistent with a plastic characterization of metal flow, where discontinuities in shear flow are allowed but not viscous effects. It is consistent with experiments employing several different kinds of tracer: atomic markers, shot, and wire. If a rotating disc with angular velocity w is superposed on a translating continuum with linear velocity omega, the trajectories of tracer points become circular arcs centered upon a point displaced laterally a distance v/omega from the center of rotation of the disc in the direction of the advancing side of the disc. In the present model a stream of metal approaching the tool (taken as the coordinate system of observation) is sheared at the slip surface, rapidly rotated around the tool, sheared again on the opposite side of the tool, and deposited in the wake of the tool. Local shearing rates are high, comparable to metal cutting in this model. The flow patterns in the vicinity of the pin-tool determine the level of homogenization and dispersal of contaminants that occurs in the FSW process. The approaching metal streams enfold one another as they are rotated around the tool. Neglecting mixing they return to the same lateral position in the wake of the tool preserving lateral tracer positions as if the metal had flowed past the tool like an extrusion instead of being rotated around it. (The seam is, however, obliterated.) The metal stream of thickness approximately that of the tool diameter D is wiped past the tool at elevated temperatures drawn out to a thickness of v/2(omega) in the wiping zone. Mixing distances in the wiping zone are multiplied in the unfolded metal. Inhomogeneities on a smaller scale than the mixing length are obliterated, but structure on a larger scale may be transmitted to the wake of a FSW weld.

Nunes, Arthur C., Jr.↗

Unsteady Surface Pressure Characterization on Launch Vehicle in Liftoff Configuration

Acquisition of unsteady pressure using remote scanners can provide practical advantages over making the same measurements directly using flush-mounted pressure transducers. However, pneumatic distortion of the signal is introduced by the tubing between the sensing module and surface port. This typically limits the usefulness of such measurements to averaged, steady data only, restricting the application of pressure scanners for unsteady pressure measurements in the wind tunnel and flight-testing applications. In this work, unsteady pressure on the surface of a 1.75%-scale model of the NASA Space Launch System Block 1B Cargo vehicle was remotely measured at the NASA Langley Research Center 14- by 22-Foot Subsonic Tunnel using an ESP pressure scanner. Subsequent reconstruction using an empirically-tuned, Wiener-filtered inverse transfer function produced excellent agreement compared to nearby surface-mounted transducers within a usable bandwidth of approximately 500 Hz. Interactions between the launch vehicle and the support tower produced strong oscillations that were absent in the vehicle-alone configuration, and it is likely that the wake interaction leads to a resonant flow response when the launch tower is immediately downstream of the vehicle.

Unsteady pressure↗

Findings from the Supersonic Qualification Program of the Mars Science Laboratory Parachute System

In 2012, the Mars Science Laboratory Mission (MSL) will deploy NASA's largest extra-terrestrial parachute, a technology integral to the safe landing of its advanced robotic explorer on the surface. The supersonic parachute system is a mortar deployed 21.5 m disk-gap-band (DGB) parachute, identical in geometric scaling to the Viking era DGB parachutes of the 1970's. The MSL parachute deployment conditions are Mach 2.3 at a dynamic pressure of 750 Pa. The Viking Balloon Launched Decelerator Test (BLDT) successfully demonstrated a maximum of 700 Pa at Mach 2.2 for a 16.1 m DGB parachute in its AV4 flight. All previous Mars deployments have derived their supersonic qualification from the Viking BLDT test series, preventing the need for full scale high altitude supersonic testing. The qualification programs for Mars Pathfinder, Mars Exploration Rover, and Phoenix Scout Missions were all limited to subsonic structural qualification, with supersonic performance and survivability bounded by the BLDT qualification. The MSL parachute, at the edge of the supersonic heritage deployment space and 33% larger than the Viking parachute, accepts a certain degree of risk without addressing the supersonic environment in which it will deploy. In addition, MSL will spend up to 10 seconds above Mach 1.5, an aerodynamic regime that is associated with a known parachute instability characterized by significant canopy projected area fluctuation and dynamic drag variation. This aerodynamic instability, referred to as "area oscillations" by the parachute community has drag performance, inflation stability, and structural implications, introducing risk to mission success if not quantified for the MSL parachute system. To minimize this risk and as an alternative to a prohibitively expensive high altitude test program, a multi-phase qualification program using computation simulation validated by subscale test was developed and implemented for MSL. The first phase consisted of 2% of fullscale supersonic wind tunnel testing of a rigid DGB parachute with entry-vehicle to validate two high fidelity computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools. The computer codes utilized Large Eddy Simulation and Detached Eddy Simulation numerical approaches to accurately capture the turbulent wake of the entry vehicle and its coupling to the parachute bow-shock. The second phase was the development of fluid structure interaction (FSI) computational tools to predict parachute response to the supersonic flow field. The FSI development included the integration of the CFD from the first phase with a finite element structural model of the parachute membrane and cable elements. In this phase, a 4% of full-scale supersonic flexible parachute test program was conducted to provide validation data to the FSI code and an empirical dataset of the MSL parachute in a flight-like environment. The final phase is FSI simulations of the full-scale MSL parachute in a Mars type deployment. Findings from this program will be presented in terms of code development and validation, empirical findings from the supersonic testing, and drag performance during supersonic operation.

EDL↗

The structure of vortex breakdown

The term 'vortex breakdown', as used in the reported investigation, refers to a disturbance characterized by the formation of an internal stagnation point on the vortex axis, followed by reversed flow in a region of limited axial extent. Two forms of vortex breakdown, which predominate, are shown in photographs. One form is called 'near-axisymmetric' (sometimes 'axisymmetric'), and the other is called 'spiral'. A survey is presented of work published since the 1972 review by Hall. Most experimental data taken since Hall's review have been in tubes, and the survey deals primarily with such cases. It is found that the assumption of axial-symmetry has produced useful results. The classification of flows as supercritical or subcritical, a step that assumes symmetry, has proved universally useful. Experiments show that vortex breakdown is always preceded by an upstream supercritical flow and followed by a subcritical wake. However, a comparison between experiments and attempts at prediction is less than encouraging. For a satisfactory understanding of the structure of vortex breakdown it is apparently necessary to take into account also aspects of asymmetry.

Leibovich, S.↗

A Comparative Study of Simulated and Measured Gear-Flap Flow Interaction

The ability of two CFD solvers to accurately characterize the transient, complex, interacting flowfield asso-ciated with a realistic gear-flap configuration is assessed via comparison of simulated flow with experimental measurements. The simulated results, obtained with NASA's FUN3D and Exa's PowerFLOW® for a high-fidelity, 18% scale semi-span model of a Gulfstream aircraft in landing configuration (39 deg flap deflection, main landing gear on and off) are compared to two-dimensional and stereo particle image velocimetry measurements taken within the gear-flap flow interaction region during wind tunnel tests of the model. As part of the bench-marking process, direct comparisons of the mean and fluctuating velocity fields are presented in the form of planar contour plots and extracted line profiles at measurement planes in various orientations stationed in the main gear wake. The measurement planes in the vicinity of the flap side edge and downstream of the flap trailing edge are used to highlight the effects of gear presence on tip vortex development and the ability of the computational tools to accurately capture such effects. The present study indicates that both computed datasets contain enough detail to construct a relatively accurate depiction of gear-flap flow interaction. Such a finding increases confidence in using the simulated volumetric flow solutions to examine the behavior of pertinent aer-odynamic mechanisms within the gear-flap interaction zone.

Khorrami, Mehdi R.↗

Averaging techniques for steady and unsteady calculations of a transonic fan stage

It is often desirable to characterize a turbomachinery flow field with a few lumped parameters such as total pressure ratio or stage efficiency. Various averaging schemes may be used to compute these parameters. The momentum, energy, and area averaging schemes are described and compared. The schemes were compared for two computed solutions of the midspan section of a transonic fan stage: a steady averaging-plane solution in which average rotor outflow conditions were used as stator inflow conditions, and an unsteady rotor-stator interaction solution. The solutions were computed on identical grids using similar Navier-Stokes codes and an algebraic turbulence model. The unsteady solution is described, some unsteady flow phenomena are discussed, and the steady pressure distributions are compared. Despite large unsteady pressure fluctuations on the stator surface, the steady pressure distribution matched the average unsteady distribution almost exactly. Stator wake profiles, stator loss coefficient, and stage efficiency were computed for the two solutions with the three averaging schemes and are compared. In general, the energy averaging scheme gave good agreement between the averaging-plane solution and the time-averaged unsteady solution, even though certain phenomena due to unsteady wake migration were neglected.

Wyss, M. L.↗

CFD Assessment of Orifice Aspect Ratio and Mass Flow Ratio on Jet Mixing in Rectangular Ducts

Isothermal CFD analysis was performed on axially opposed rows of jets mixing with cross flow in a rectangular duct. Laterally, the jets' centerlines were aligned with each other on the top and bottom walls. The focus of this study was to characterize the effects of orifice aspect ratio and jet-to-mainstream mass flow ratio on jet penetration and mixing. Orifice aspect ratios (L/W) of 4-to-1, 2-to-1, and 1-to-1, along with circular holes, were parametrically analyzed. Likewise, jet-to-mainstream mass flow ratios (MR) of 2.0, 0.5, and 0.25 were systematically investigated. The jet-to-mainstream momentum-flux ratio (J) was maintained at 36 for all cases, and the orifice spacing-to-duct height (S/H) was varied until optimum mixing was attained for each configuration. The numerical results showed that orifice aspect ratio (and likewise orifice blockage) had little effect on jet penetration and mixing. Based on mixing characteristics alone, the 4-to-1 slot was comparable to the circular orifice. The 4-to-1 slot has a smaller jet wake which may be advantageous for reducing emissions. However, the axial length of a 4-to-1 slot may be prohibitively long for practical application, especially for MR of 2.0. The jet-to-mainstream mass flow ratio had a more significant effect on jet penetration and mixing. For a 4-to-1 aspect ratio orifice, the design correlating parameter for optimum mixing (C = (S/H)(sq. root J)) varied from 2.25 for a mass flow ratio of 2.0 to 1.5 for a mass flow ratio of 0.25.

Bain, D. B.↗