An experimental investigation of a square supersonic jet and impinging jet on an inclined plate

Supersonic free jets and impinging jets are found in many engineering applications, such as short and vertical take-off and landing vehicles, cold gas dynamic spray processes, hot surface cooling mechanisms, and turbomachinery systems. The flow characteristics of a supersonic square jet discharging into the ambient and a supersonic jet impinging on a 45° inclined surface were experimentally investigated for nozzle-pressure-ratios (NPRs) of 4.8 and 5.9. Experimental measurements of impinging jets were acquired for nozzle-to-plate distances of 0.82Dj and 1.8Dj, where Dj is the jet hydraulic diameter. The velocity fields in the central plane of the jet were obtained using planar particle image velocimetry. The flow characteristics of the supersonic jets, including mean velocity and turbulent kinetic energy, were computed from the acquired two-dimensional two-component velocity vector fields, and statistical profiles were compared for different NPRs and nozzle-to-plate distances. For supersonic free jets, the acquired statistical results revealed the presence of multiple shock cells along the streamwise direction. Impinging jet measurements revealed the presence of shock cells in the vicinity of the nozzle outlet, oblique plate shocks near the impingement location, and several tail shocks along the streamwise direction. Spatial turbulent velocity cross correlations were calculated for various points located along the shear layers to investigate the characteristics of turbulent features, such as the shape, orientation, and integral length scales of the studied configurations. In addition, a proper orthogonal decomposition analysis was applied to the instantaneous velocity fields to identify the statistically dominant flow structures that play an important role in the flow field characteristics of supersonic free jets and supersonic impinging jets.