Dusty Gas Flow in a Converging-Diverging Nozzle

Abstract

The flow in a converging-diverging nozzle is studied numerically. The flowing medium is a suspension composed of gas seeded with small, spherical, solid particles. The solution covers the entire flow history, from its initiation and until a steady state flow is reached. The covered flow domain includes both the flow field inside the nozzle and part of the free jet flow outside of the nozzle exit plane. The solution is repeated for different solid particle diameters, ranging from 0.5 μm to 50 μm, and different dust loading ratios. It is shown that the presence of solid particles in the flow has a significant effect on the developed flow field, inside and outside the nozzle. In particular, by a proper choice of particles diameter lateral pressure waves and the secondary shock wave can be significantly attenuated. The solid particles size has also a marked effect on the position and size of the Mach disk appearing in the free jet flow. It is also shown that in a suspension case a steady state flow is reached faster than in a similar pure gas flow.