Behavior of Unsteady Turbulent Starting Round Jets

Abstract

Turbulent starting jets with time-varying injection velocities were investigated using high-speed schlieren imaging. Two solenoid-controlled injectors fed a common plenum upstream of an orifice; using different upstream pressures and actuation times, injection-rate profiles with a step increase or decrease in injection velocity were tested. The behavior of the jet was found to be different depending on the direction of the injection-velocity change. A step increase in injection velocity resulted in an increased rate of penetration relative to the steady-injection case, and a larger increase in injection velocity resulted in an earlier change in the tip-penetration rate. The step-increase data were found to be collapsed by scaling the time by a convective time scale based on the tip location at the time of the injection-velocity change and the difference in the injection velocities. A sudden decrease in injection velocity to zero was found to cause a deviation from the corresponding steady-pressure case at a time that was independent of the initial jet velocity, i.e., it was independent of the magnitude of the injection-velocity change. Two models for unsteady injection from the literature were tested and some deficiencies in the models were identified.