OpenFOAM simulations of jet-in-crossflow (JICF) phenomenon

Abstract

Extensive experimental studies have been made on the subject of JICF. Many numerical studies have also been made, however, studies in JICF making use of OpenFOAM in particular are comparatively limited. The capabilities of OpenFOAM to model the jet-in crossflow (JICF) phenomenon will be studied in this paper. Simulations using both the Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) and Large Eddy Simulation (LES) models of OpenFOAM were tested, using a mesh converted for use in OpenFOAM which was generated in ANSYS meshing software. The JICF case studied is of an elliptical jet orifice with low aspect ratio of 0.3. The model fluid used for both the jet and crossflow is water, with a Reynolds number of Re = 2976 at the jet inlet. The velocity ratio between the jet and crossflow inlets were kept at a nominal value of V/U = 4. The analysis of the RANS simulation shows decent agreement with experimental results, and the RANS results were used to initialize the fields for the LES simulation. The LES simulation was able to predict the major key flow features in the JICF, as well as flow features specific to JICF with an elliptical jet orifice, such as vortex entanglement along the leading-edge. Discrepancies were found between the simulation and experimental results, the likely causes of which are the inlet conditions in the simulation, and the overall mesh quality.