COMPUTATIONAL ANALYSIS OF SUPERSONIC JETS FROM RECTANGULAR NOZZLES

A prominent field which is drawing much attention in recent times is the mixing characteristics of supersonic jet flows because of its wide ranging applications in Aero - engines. Unlike in subsonic flows, vanes or baffles could not be used for creating mixing in a supersonic flow. In the present study, the supersonic jet flow from a nozzle with rectangular cross section is analyzed using CFD Techniques. The primary cause of the non - uniform flow exiting the nozzle is due to cross - flow pressure gradients imposed on wall boundary layers. The cross - flow pressure gradients cause the boundary layer to roll up into counter - rotating vortex pairs on each of the four sides of the nozzle. These four vortex pairs produce signifi cant non - uniformity in the nozzle exit flow. The nozzle is designed using CATIA design software and the computational analysis is done using ANSYS CFX software for different aspect ratios