The Effect of Spanwise Width on Rectangular Jets With Sidewalls

Abstract

A CFD study on the effect of spanwise width on a rectangular jet with sidewalls is conducted using a standard k-ɛ model with wall functions. An order of magnitude analysis reveals the role played by spanwise turbulent shear terms, arising from the wall bounded flow, as the aspect ratio is decreased at high streamwise distances. A comparative study involving experimental data and other turbulence models is also presented to validate the k-ɛ model for this confined jet flow. It is found that the effect of bounding walls is negligible up to a streamwise distance of at least 105 jet diameters for an aspect ratio of 40, however this distance, within which the flow can be approximated as two-dimensional, decreases with decrease in aspect ratio.