Large Eddy simulations of high Reynolds number jets with microjet injection

Continued growth of the aviation industry and increasingly strict noise requirements set by international bodies and airport authorities alike means that novel methods of reducing aircraft noise must be found. Engine noise represents a majority contribution to total aircraft noise during take-off and turbulent mixing of the exhaust gases is the dominant noise source of the engine at take-off. While bypass ratio has been the historical, and rather convenient means, of reducing jet noise, an upper limit to bypass ratio is now being approached and additional means of reducing jet noise must be found. One method that has shown potential for reducing aeroacoustic jet noise is the application of small, high pressure jets to the circumference of the jet nozzle. These jets, termed microjets, have the advantage over static devices that the microjets can be activated only when the noise benefit is required and deactivated when emitted noise is not an issue, such as in cruise, thereby reducing the thrust penalty associated with the devices over the majority of the flight. Large eddy simulations have been performed to investigate the impact that the addition of microjets has on the aerodynamic flowfield and radiated far-field noise of a high Reynolds number, Mach 0.9, propulsive, laboratory scale jet. Far-field noise was predicted through a new implementation of the permeable Ffowcs Williams Hawkings surface method in the solver. In addition to single-point flowfield statistics and far-field noise, spatio-temporal second- and fourth-order correlations are investigated. Two pairs of simulations were conducted, a coarse mesh containing 100 million elements and a fine mesh with 200 million elements. The coarse mesh included an azimuthal clustering of the cells in the near-microjet region. The non-uniformity of the azimuthal cell size was shown to adversely affect the development of the initial shear layer, yielding a delay in transition to a fully turbulent state and larger coherent structures in regions with larger cells. Radial velocity and turbulent kinetic energy profiles show good agreement with experimental results. A previously unidentified periodic interaction between the main jet and microjets was found. The dynamic interaction gives rise to velocity and pressure fluctuations in the near microjet region that match a tonal frequency found in the microjet far-field spectra that is absent from the clean jet case. Second- and fourth-order correlation distributions show large periodic regions of high correlation amplitude in the near microjet region. The evidence demonstrates that the main-microjet interaction is a clear high-frequency noise source. Despite the high-frequency noise associated with the main-microjet interaction, the addition of microjets yields a 1-2 dB reduction in overall sound pressure level. Additionally, over a significant portion of the length of the potential core the microjets reduce the amplitude of the majority of the six main correlation amplitudes that can be used in far-field noise prediction. Finally, the generation of the counter-rotating vortex pair downstream of the microjets was investigated. It is commonly presumed that this vortex pair is similar in origin to the counter-rotating vortex pair present in a jet in a crossflow. Vortex identification methods, velocity vectors and streamlines in the near microjet region demonstrate that the horseshoe-like vortex is the source of the counter rotating vortex pair that is present downstream of the microjets. The horseshoe-like vortex in the microjet case has the same sense as the vortices in the microjet shear layer and appears to be generated by the development of a recirculation region of microjet fluid during the main-microjet interaction.