Near-field behavior of variable property jet with swirling flow generated by a change in gravitational orientation

This paper presents the near-field behavior of a variable property jet with swirling flow generated by a change in gravitational orientation, focusing on the onset of vortex formation at the jet interface and the subsequent vortex breakdown (VB). Two types of gases are used to create a significant difference in the physical properties between the inner and outer fluids: CO2 with high-density and low-viscosity, and helium with low-density and high-viscosity. We propose a nondimensional instability parameter M* as a useful index for predicting the onset of vortex formation at a swirling jet interface. Inverted gravity (+1g) enlarges the region of unstable VB of the CO2 jet compared with that in normal gravity (-1g), which clearly shows that the buoyancy force has a significant impact on unstable VB. The trends of the changes in the jet half-angle and stagnation point height are investigated in detail for the preceding stable VB. Our physical model derived by considering the momentum balance in a swirling flow is adopted to understand the mechanism of the notable change in the stagnation point height in +1g with increasing swirl number of the inner jet and Reynolds number of the outer jet. (C) 2015 AIP Publishing LLC.