Investigation of fluid mechanics of slotted air-jets for air reverser applications
Abstract
The fluid mechanics of the air flow, caused by a series of impinging air-jets, in a constant-height, rigid channel is investigated using computational fluid dynamics (CFD). The primary goal of this work is to investigate the effects of the interactions between different air-jets. The model is representative of a cross section of the clearance between a web and an air-reverser. A cross flow is generated by the air trapped in the clearance. Using the CFD package Fluent, the effects of channel-height, spacing between the air-jets, supply pressure for the air-jets and number of jets, on the flow characteristics is investigated. In particular a flow "loss" coefficient, defined as the ratio of the velocity obtained using average velocity of each jet from the CFD analysis to the velocity obtained from the Bernoulli's equation, was shown to vary from air-jet to air-jet. It was found that a lower channel-clearance increases jet interaction, as it forces jets to flow into each other. Larger spacing of the air-jets also increases jet interaction, as cross flow fully develops iota lateral flow. Supply pressure was seen to have a small effect. The flow "loss" coefficient behavior was characterized as functions of these variables.
Citation
Lopez, E., & Muftu, S. (2005, June). Investigation of fluid mechanics of slotted air-jets for air reverser applications. Paper presented at the Eighth International Conference on Web Handling (IWEB), Stillwater, OK.