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The Effect of Thermal Non-Uniformity on Coherent Structures in Supersonic Free Jets

Supersonic jet exhaust plumes produce noise in jet engines, which has been a problem in the aerospace field. Researchers are working on ways to reduce this turbulent mixing noise, with little modification to the engine and nozzle. Prior work has shown that total temperature non-uniformity is a noise reduction technique which introduces a stream of cold flow into the heated jet. This method has been shown to cause changes in the exhaust plume and result in a 2±0.5 dB reduction of peak sound pressure levels. The goal of this work is to reveal underlying changes in the spatial-temporal structure of plume instability and turbulence caused by non-uniform total temperature distributions. Studies have demonstrated several methods of jet noise reduction by modifying the turbulent mixing in the exhaust plume. Large-scale turbulent structures have been shown to be the dominant source of noise in heated supersonic jets, especially over long, streamwise distances. Therefore, a large field-of-view measurement is desirable for studying these structures. Time-Resolved Doppler Global Velocimetry (TR-DGV) with a sampling frequency of 50 kHz is used to collect flow velocity data that is resolved in both time and space. The experiments for data collection were performed on a heated supersonic jet at the Virginia Tech Advanced Propulsion and Power Laboratory. A converging-diverging nozzle with a diameter Reynolds number of 850,000 was used to generate a perfectly expanded, heated flow of Mach 1.5 and a nozzle pressure ratio (NPR) of 3.67. The unheated plume was introduced at the center of the nozzle, with a total temperature ratio (TTR) of 2. Comparison of the mean velocity fields shows that the introduction of the cooler temperature flow in the thermally non-uniform case results in a velocity deficit of about 10% compared to the thermally uniform case. The method of spectral proper orthogonal decomposition (SPOD) was used to reveal the large-scale, coherent noise producing mechanisms. SPOD results indicate that the thermally non-uniform case showed a decrease in turbulent kinetic energy compared to the uniform case at all frequencies. Coherent fluctuations start developing further upstream in the thermally non-uniform case. The addition of the unheated plume results in a disruption in the propagation of the Mach waves from the shear layer into the ambient. The results indicate that the total temperature non-uniformity results in a modified exhaust plume and mean flow distribution at the nozzle exit, compared to that of a thermally uniform flow, which past studies have indicated is a method to reduce jet noise. / Master of Science / Supersonic jet exhaust plumes produce noise in jet engines, which has been a problem in the aerospace field. Researchers are working on ways to reduce this turbulent mixing noise, with little modification to the engine and nozzle. Traditionally, nozzles produce a single stream of uniform temperature flow. This work identifies a method of reducing jet noise, known as thermal non-uniformity. A stream of cold flow is introduced at the center of the nozzle. Applying this method to jet engines can result in quieter aircraft. Large-scale turbulent structures are the dominant noise producing source in supersonic free jets. To further understand the relationship between coherent structures and acoustic jet noise, spectral analysis is used to educe these structures from the flow. This study uses velocity data collected using Time-Resolved Doppler Global Velocimetry (TR-DGV). The study compares the results of a thermally uniform and a thermally non-uniform heated supersonic jet of Mach 1.5. The goal of this study is to determine the effects of thermal non-uniformity on large-scale coherent structures using a modal decomposition analysis known as spectral proper orthogonal decomposition (SPOD). The results from this study show that the thermally non-uniform cases contained less turbulent kinetic energy compared to the thermally uniform cases. Coherent fluctuations start developing further upstream in the thermally non-uniform case. The addition of the unheated plume results in a disruption in the propagation of the Mach waves from the shear layer into the ambient. The results indicate that the total temperature non-uniformity results in a modified exhaust plume and mean flow distribution at the nozzle exit, compared to that of a thermally uniform flow, which past studies have indicated is a method to reduce jet noise.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:VTETD/oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/115572
Date28 June 2023
CreatorsTang, Joanne Vien
ContributorsAerospace and Ocean Engineering, Lowe, Kevin T., Ng, Wing Fai, Mueller, Rolf
PublisherVirginia Tech
Source SetsVirginia Tech Theses and Dissertation
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeThesis
FormatETD, application/pdf, application/vnd.openxmlformats-officedocument.wordprocessingml.document
RightsIn Copyright, http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

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