Dance of the sonic jets

Dance of the sonic jets

Premika Susindran Thasu, Indian Institute of Science
Vaisakh Sasidharan, Indian Institute of Science
Sushmitha Janakiram, Indian Institute of Science
Subrahmanyam Duvvuri, Indian Institute of Science

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/APS.DFD.2021....

Interaction between multiple jet flows is an important aspect of engineering design in specific applications like combustors and multi-nozzle rocket propulsion systems. In this video you'll see schlieren visualization (where density gradients are highlighted) from experiments with linear arrays of circular sonic jets, with varying numbers of jets between the arrays. "Sonic" implies that the jet flows have a Mach number =1 (flow speed matches local sound speed) at the exit plane. These visualizations reveals rich flow features with disparate nature of flow interactions between adjacent jets, which is dependent on the number of jets, inter-jet spacing, and flow pressure. In practice, depending on the application, engineers might decide to attenuate or accentuate certain aspects of flow interactions to suit overall design requirements.

See other videos from the 2021 Gallery of Fluid Motion: https://gfm.aps.org/