Research into the fluidic precessing jet, used in industrial burners, has been carried out within the School of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Adelaide for over a decade. The flow field generated by the fluidic precessing jet (FPJ) is extremely complex, and there are many questions yet to be answered about the mechanisms by which precession influences the mixing of the jet and ambient fluid, and hence combustion. Some may be answered by studying a non-reacting precessing jet. The mechanical precessing jet (MPJ) nozzle generates a precessing jet for which the exit conditions are well known, unlike the fluidic precessing jet. The non-reacting flow from this 'mechanical analogue' of the FPJ forms the basis of the current study. The MPJ provides a means of controlling and changing the structure of turbulence in a precessing jet by varying its precessional frequency. The characteristics of the MPJ flow are primarily determined by a Strouhal number of precession, and may be categorised as belonging to either a 'low Strouhal number' or 'high Strouhal number' regime of behaviour. The fundamental aim of studying the mechanical precessing jet flow is to determine the influence of the structure of turbulent motions, and in particular the large scale motions, on jet mixing. The analyses presented in this thesis lead to a better understanding of the underlying mechanisms of precession-enhanced turbulent mixing and combustion. Simultaneously collected phase-averaged velocity and concentration fields of the MPJ flow are presented, and correlations between the fields analysed, for one low and one high Strouhal number. Additionally, because the turbulent flow produced by the MPJ nozzle is unsteady in nature and instantaneous realisations of the flow may differ significantly from the mean flow patterns, planar velocity and concentration measurements which show instantaneous flow structure over the entire field are presented. The phase-averaged velocity and concentration field data have enabled new analytical models of the MPJ trajectory to be developed, and the behaviour of the major flow features, including the stability of the counter-rotating vortex pair, to be studied. The strong entrainment and mixing characteristics of the MPJ flow are also illustrated. The data and analysis strongly suggest that the initial trajectory of the jet is essentially radial, during which the jet experiences axial compression. At larger radius the jet experiences axial stretching. A counter- rotating vortex pair is seen to form approximately two potential core lengths from the jet exit, where the jet appears to bend sharply towards the axis of rotation. These vortices dominate the jet motion in the near field and eventually merge in the transition region of the flow. The inner vortex of the counter-rotating vortex pair mixes at approximately half the rate of the outer vortex, thus delivering a rich fuel mixture to the transition region when the MPJ is used as a burner. This may explain in part earlier observations of highly radiant, fuel-rich flames in the transition region. This study also outlines the development of an experimental technique for the simultaneous measurement of velocity and concentration in a plane. The medium is air, and the technique combines Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence (PLIF) of acetone vapour in a unique manner. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--School of Mechanical Engineering, 2004.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/263863 |
| Date | January 2004 |
| Creators | Clayfield, Kimberley Christina |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
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