Flow-field dynamics of the non-reacting and reacting jet in a vitiated cross-flow

Abstract The dynamics of a premixed ethylene-air jet injected transverse to a vitiated cross-flow were investigated using high-repetition rate particle image velocimetry (PIV). Both non-reacting and reacting jets were found to be characterized by a dominant frequency associated with the jet wake vortex system. For the isothermal jet, increasing the momentum flux ratio ( J ) has only a slight effect on the frequency of the oscillation but significantly increases its magnitude. The reacting jet was found to exhibit different behavior, with a monotonic increase in the dominant frequency with J . The jet equivalence ratio (ϕ j ) was found to have little effect on the rate of wake vortex shedding but affects the overall magnitude of the oscillation. Comparison with data reported in the literature suggests the relationship between the wake Strouhal number ( St w ) and J is fuel dependent. Application of a vortex detection algorithm shows a stark difference in the location of the wake vortices under non-reacting and reacting conditions. Under isothermal conditions, the vortices are found close to the jet centerline and dissipate relatively quickly. Reaction confines the vortices to a narrow shear layer until a farther distance downstream and the vortices convect through the entire area of interest. Additionally, the vortex circulation strength was found to increase with J . Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) analysis of the non-reacting and reacting jets demonstrates the dominance of the wake vortex structures in the oscillating flow fields. In both cases, the temporal information extracted from the most energetic modes is identical to the dominant frequencies measured in the flow fields. The primary effect of heat release is to reduce the overall amount of coherence and to delay the appearance of elevated coherence levels until a larger streamwise distance from the jet exit.