The influences of acoustic excitation on the velocity field and mixing characteristic of a jet in cross-flow were investigated in a wind tunnel. The acoustic excitation waves at resonance Strouhal number were generated by a loudspeaker. The time-averaged velocity field and streamlines of the excited elevated transverse jet in the symmetry plane were measured by a high-speed particle image velocimetry. The visual penetration height and spread width were obtained by using an image processing technique. The dispersion characteristics were obtained from the tracer-gas concentration measurement. The results showed that the streamline pattern of the non-excited transverse jet was significantly modified by the acoustic excitation—the bent streamlines evolved from the jet exit escalated and the vortex rings in the jet and tube wakes and the recirculation bubble in the jet wake disappeared. The time-averaged velocity distributions revealed that the excited transverse jet produces large momentum in the up-shooting direction so that the velocity trajectories were located at levels higher than those of the non-excited one. The mixing characteristics, which include the visual penetration height, spread width, and dispersion, were drastically improved by the acoustic excitation due to the changes in the flow structures. The excited transverse jet characterized at larger jet-to-crossflow momentum flux ratios presented larger improvement in the mixing characteristics than at lower jet-to-crossflow momentum flux ratios.

The flame and flow behaviors along with the fuel jet oscillations of non-premixed and axisymmetric swirling wake during acoustic excitations are studied experimentally. Visual observations on the reaction zones are carried out to identify the flame behaviors. Close-up images at the flame base as well as the whole flame images are captured and discussed. Traditional photography techniques are adopted to illustrate the dimensional characteristics of every flame mode. The central jet oscillations are diagnosed by a two component laser Doppler anemometer. Combined images of the flame and flow are gathered using the laser-light sheet assisted Mie scattering method. Results showed that the short and wide flame which was induced during acoustic forcing is principally because of the severe premixing at the tip of the burner tube. Wake recirculation bubble enhanced premixing at low swirl number while it damped the jet oscillation at higher swirl number. Mechanics of mixing at every flame mode during acoustic excitation are reported and discussed.

The Instability modal behavior of coherent structures in a jet-small cylinder impinging flow field is extensively studied by hot-wire anemometry measurements. The free jet is employed with a small cylinder of 3 mm in diameter located in the potential core region at the impinging length of L/H = 1.5 for the near field impingement and L/H = 4 for the far field impingement. The jet exit velocity is operated at 10 m/sec with the Reynolds number of 1.03 × 104 based on the nozzle exit width H = 15mm. The impinging jet is locally excited at the nozzle exit with varicose mode (m =0) and sinuous mode (m = 1) disturbances at the fundamental frequency of the natural jet flow. Data indicate that the jet flow is greatly altered and significantly enhanced by strengthening the coherent structures of the flow due to resonance according to the feedback mechanism. Although the original natural jet preferably exhibits the varicose mode, the strong sinuous mode is dominant in the flow field owing to the presence of the small cylinder in the potential core region. In the near field impingement, the wake region behind the cylinder preserves the pure sinuous mode to where the jet vortices merge and then mildly fades out. Whereas in the jet shear layer, the sinuous mode exists in the initial portion and gradually transforms to the varicose mode. In the far field impingement, the alternate mode dominates in each frequency stage in pure impinging case and the modal behavior follows the selected mode with the introducing acoustic waves in the acoustic excitation cases.