Turbulent mixing enhancement has received a great deal of attention in the fluid mechanics community in the last few decades. Generally speaking, mixing enhancement involves the increased dispersion of the fluid that makes up a flow. The current work focuses on mixing enhancement of an axisymmetric jet via high amplitude fluidic pulses applied at the nozzle exit with high aspect ratio actuator nozzles. The work consists of small scale clean jet experiments, small scale micro-turbine engine experiments, and full scale laboratory simulated core exhaust experiments using actuators designed to fit within the engine nacelle of a full scale aircraft. The small scale clean jet experiments show that mixing enhancement compared to the unforced case is likely due to a combination of mechanisms. The first mechanism is the growth of shear layer instabilities, similar to that which occurs with an acoustically excited jet except that, in this case, the forcing is highly nonlinear. The result of the instability is a frequency bucket with an optimal forcing frequency. The second mechanism is the generation of counter rotating vortex pairs similar to those generated by mechanical tabs. The penetration depth determines the extent to which this mechanism acts. The importance of this mechanism is therefore a function of the pulsing amplitude. The key mixing parameters were found to be the actuator to jet momentum ratio (amplitude) and the pulsing frequency, where the optimal frequency depends on the amplitude. The importance of phase, offset, duty cycle, and geometric configuration were also explored. The experiments on the jet engine and full scale simulated core nozzle demonstrated that pulse fluidic mixing enhancement was effective on realistic flows. The same parameters that were important for the cleaner small scale experiments were found to be important for the more realistic cases as well. This suggests that the same mixing mechanisms are at work. Additional work was done to optimize, in real time, mixing on the small jet engine using an evolution strategy.

Les travaux de thèse sont consacrés à l’étude numérique de l’application de macro-déformations successives alternées a la paroi d’un tube. La modification de l’écoulement du fait des déformations permet de modifier ses propriétés en termes de transfert thermique et de mélange. L’objectif de l’étude d’un tel dispositif est entre autre de l’appliquer pour des configurations d’échangeurs multifonctionnels, qui sont à la fois échangeurs de chaleur et réacteurs chimiques. L’étude s’intéresse principalement aux écoulements laminaires. Les calculs sont réalisés avec le code ANSYS Fluent. L’étude est tout d’abord consacrée à la caractérisation de l’écoulement secondaire créé par les déformations ainsi qu’à l’influence des différents paramètres de déformation. Afin d’améliorer le mélange dans l’écoulement, l’étude d’une configuration coaxiale déformée a été envisagée (cette géométrie correspond de plus à une configuration d’écoulement utilisée dans l’industrie). Deux configurations annulaires ont été considérées. Dans un premier temps, les déformations pariétales ont été appliquées aux tubes interne et externe : différents déphasages longitudinaux et angulaires entre ces deux déformations ont été étudiés pour optimiser les performances thermo-hydrauliques. La seconde configuration combine des déformations sur la paroi externe et un swirl sur la paroi interne de la géométrie. Cette configuration particulière permet en régime laminaire d’augmenter significativement le mélange du fait de l’apparition d’advection chaotique dans l’écoulement. Cette dernière géométrie est appliquée dans le cas d’un échangeur solaire à concentration et permet d’améliorer les performances par rapport à un tube lisse dans des conditions similaires. La dernière partie de l’étude est consacrée à une validation expérimentale des résultats numériques lorsque les déformations sont appliquées à une plaque. Des mesures par PIV et LDA ont été réalisées pour mesurer la vitesse locale de l’écoulement. / The work presented here is focused on the numerical study of specific successive wall deformations in alternate directions, applied to a tubular geometry. Those deformations help modifying the flow structure and thus its heat transfer and mixing properties. One of the main aims of the study is to apply those deformations to multifunctional exchangers which are heat exchangers and chemical reactors at the same time. The study is mainly focused on laminar flows and all the numerical calculations were performed using the CFD code ANSYS Fluent. The first step of the study is to assess the secondary flow created by the wall deformations. The influence of several deformation geometrical parameters has also been studied. In order to enhance the mixing in the deformed tube, the wall deformations have been applied to coaxial configurations (often used in the industry). Two kinds of annular configurations have been evaluated. At first, the wall deformations are applied to the external and internal walls of the coaxial tube. The effect on the heat transfer enhancement of the longitudinal and angular phase-shifting between the two deformations has been specifically assessed. The second configuration considered combines the alternate deformations on its external walls and a swirled internal wall. This particular annular configuration creates chaotic advection in laminar flows, therefore helping increasing the mixing. This geometry is used as a solar captor and helps increasing the global performances when compared with a smooth tube usually used. The last part of the presented work is focused on the experimental validation of the numerical results. Techniques such as PIV and LDA are used to measure local velocity fields in a plane duct with alternate deformations applied to its lower wall.

Rapid mixing and spreading of supersonic jets are two important characteristics in supersonic ejectors, noise reduction in jets and fuel mixing in supersonic combustion. It helps in changing the acoustic and thermal signature in supersonic exhaust. The supersonic nozzles in most cases result in compressible mixing layers. The subsonic nozzles form incompressible mixing layers but at high Mach numbers even they form compressible mixing layers. Compressible mixing layers have been found to have much lower mixing and spreading rates than incompressible mixing layer Birch & Eggers (1972). In order to enhance the spreading and mixing of mixing layers from supersonic nozzles various active and passive methods have been deviced. Active methods include fluid injection, fluid lobes and plasma actuation. Passive methods are mostly based on modifying the nozzle geometry such that the fluid expansion is ideal or the shock cell is broken. Many nozzles with exotic shapes have been developed to obtain mixing enhancements in supersonic jets Gutmark et al. (1995). To achieve enhanced mixing an innovative nozzle named as the Elliptic Sharp Tipped Shallow (ESTS) lobed nozzle has been developed in L.H.S.R., I.I.Sc., India Rao & Jagadeesh (2014). This nozzle has a unique geometry involving elliptical lobes and sharp tips. These lobes are generated using a simple manufacturing process from the throat to the exit. This lobed and sharp tipped structure introduces stream wise vortices and azimuthal velocity components which must help in enhanced mixing and spreading. The ESTS lobed nozzle has shown mixing enhancement with 4 lobes. The spreading rate was found to be double of the reference conical nozzle. This thesis is motivated by the need to investigate the flow physics involved in the ESTS lobed nozzle. The effect of varying the number of lobes and the design Mach number of the nozzle on the mixing and spreading characteristics will be further discussed. Visualisation studies have been performed. The schlieren and planar LASER Mie scattering techniques have been used to probe the flow. Instantaneous images were taken at axial planes with the reference conical and ESTS nozzles with three, four, five and six lobes. The nozzles are for design Mach number 2.0 and 2.5. The stagnation chamber pressure was maintained to obtain over expanded, ideally expanded and under expanded flows. LASER scattering was obtained by seeding the flow with water to observe the behaviour of the primary flow. The condensation of moisture due to the cold primary flow mixing with the ambient air was exploited to scatter laser and observe the flow structures in the mixing layer. A comparison of the images of the reference conical nozzle and the ESTS lobed nozzles shows changes in the mixing layers due to the ESTS lobed nozzles. The image of the reference conical nozzle shows a distinct potential core and mixing layers all along the length of the image. For the ESTS lobed nozzles this distinction becomes unclear shortly after the nozzle exit. Thus mixing of the primary flow and ambient air is seen to be enhanced in the case of all the ESTS lobed nozzles. The flow in the case of the ESTS lobed nozzles if found to be highly non axis symmetric. The starting process of the nozzles has been visualised using time resolved schlieren. Image processing was performed on the nozzles to quantify the spread rate. The shock structure of the nozzles has been studied and found to be modified due to the lobed geometry. The level of convolution of the mixing layer due to the lobed structure has been studied using fractal analysis. The four lobed nozzle was found to have the highest spread rate and th most convoluted shear layer. Hence this nozzle was further studied using background oriented schlieren and particle image velocimetry to quantify the flow field. These experimental results have been compared with CFD simulations using the commercial software CFX5. The computations and experiments don’t match accurately but the trends match. This allows for simulations to be used as a good first approximation. The acoustic properties of a jet are dependent on the flow structure behaviour. The ESTS lobes have been found to change the flow structure. Hence the ESTS lobed nozzle was predicted to change the acoustic signature of the flow. The acoustic measurements of the flow were carried out at National Aerospace Laboratories, Bengaluru. The screech of the overexpanded flow was seen to be eliminated and the overall sound levels were found to have been reduced in all cases. Thus the lobed nozzle was found to have acoustic benefits over the reference conical nozzle. Thus the ESTS lobed nozzle has been studied and compared with the conical nozzle using several methods. The changes due to the lobed structure have been studied quantitatively. Future studies would focus on the change in thrust due to the lobed structure. Also new geometries have been proposed inspired by the current design but with possible thrust benefits or manufacturing benefits.