A ow visualization study of the development of vortex structures in a round

jet impinging on a at plate and a cylindrical pedestal

John C. Duda, Francis D. Lagor, Amy S. Fleischer
*
NovaTherm Laboratory, Department of Mechanical Engineering, Villanova University, 800 Lancaster Avenue, Villanova, PA 19085, USA
a r t i c l e i n f o
Article history:
Received 28 April 2008
Accepted 4 May 2008
Keywords:
Jets
Jet impingement
Flow visualization
a b s t r a c t
Smoke-wire ow visualization is employed to investigate the behavior of a round jet issuing from a
straight tube and impinging on a cylindrical pedestal mounted on a at plate. Velocity and turbulence
intensity measurements at the jet exit show correlation with the formation of visualized structures near
the impingement surface. The effects of jet exit-to-surface spacing (H/d) and Reynolds number (Re) are
explored. It is found that as jet exit-surface spacing increases from 2 to 5, small but signicant effects
can be seen. These effects include a stabilization of the ow, a lengthening of the potential core and a
reduction in vortex formation prior to impingement. An increase in Re is found to increase the turbulence
in the shear layer and suppress vortex formation. The presence of the cylindrical pedestal is found to sta-
bilize the jet prior to impingement and also creates a recirculation region at the edge of the pedestal for
low Re.
2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Jets have been widely used to enhance heat transfer from a sur-
face in a variety of applications, examples of which range from tex-
tile manufacturing to electronics cooling. Consequently, several
studies have identied and investigated the effects of key parame-
ters that can affect jet impingement cooling of at plates. The
parameters include but are not limited to jet diameter (d), orienta-
tion, Reynolds number (Re), and jet-to-surface spacing which is
typically nondimensionalized as the distance from the mouth of
the jet to the surface divided by the diameter of the jet (H/d). Com-
prehensive reviews of two decades worth of heat transfer data
have been compiled by Jambunathan et al. [1] and Viskanta [2].
Despite this wealth of heat transfer data, the uid dynamics
driving jet performance have received less attention and are still
not completely understood. Flow visualization permits a direct
look at the uid ow and developing vortex structures, and allows
an analysis of the parameters that affect jet formation. Popiel and
Trass [3] employed the smoke-wire visualization technique to de-
velop a greater physical understanding of the formation and move-
ment of vortex structures in both free jets and jets impinging on
at surfaces. In this study, vortex initiation and uid entrainment
processes were identied and correlated to the H/d spacing for
Reynolds numbers (based on jet diameter) of 10,000 and 20,000.
Cornaro et al [4] used the smoke-wire visualization technique to
investigate the behavior of a round jet impinging on both concave
and convex surfaces with high curvature values and Fleischer et al
[5] used the smoke-wire visualization technique to investigate the
behavior of a round jet impinging on a convex surface. In both
cases, [4,5] the geometry of the impingement surface was found
to have a signicant effect on the formation of vortex structures
in the jet shear layer.
Lee et al. [6] studied heat transfer from turbulent round jets on
inclined concave surfaces for 11,000 6 Re 6 50,000 and found that
the stagnation point Nusselt number decreases with increasing
surface angle. Lim et al. [7] studied heat transfer from turbulent
round jets on inclined convex surfaces for Re = 23,000 and also
found that stagnation point Nusselt number decreases with
increasing surface angle.
More recently, jet impingement on cylindrical pedestals has
been of interest. Mesbah [8] measured the local heat transfer from
a 38.1 mm cylindrical pedestal to a 40.3 mm impinging round jet
using the preheated wall transient method. H/d varied from 1 to
6 jet diameters for Reynolds numbers of 23,000, 50,000, and
70,000. Parneix et al [9] considered a similar geometric congura-
tion and parameters for a numerical study in which they investi-
gated the accuracy of the V2F turbulence model for this type of
jet. Fleischer and Nejad [10] investigated jet impingement cooling
of a discretely heated portion of a cylindrical pedestal 50 mm in
diameter and 6.4 mm high. H/d ranged from 2 to 5 jet diameters
at Reynolds numbers of 10,000, 20,000, and 30,000. In all cases
the presence of the protruding pedestal was found to increase heat
transfer from the discretely heated region when compared to the
0894-1777/$ - see front matter 2008 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.expthermusci.2008.05.001
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 610 519 4954; fax: +1 610 519 7354.
E-mail address: amy.eischer@villanova.edu (A.S. Fleischer).
Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2008) 17541758
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j our nal homepage: www. el sevi er. com/ l ocat e/ et f s
at-plate control arrangement. Chung [11] measured local heat
transfer coefcients across cylindrical ns 21.5 mm in diameter
with height-to-diameter aspect ratios 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5. Smoke-wire
visualization was employed for a Reynolds number 2300 to inves-
tigate the development of the recirculation regions along the sides
of the cylinder for different cylinder height-to-diameter aspect
ratios.
The present study is designed to provide physical insight into
the uid dynamics of a round jet impinging on a cylindrical pedes-
tal with low height-to-diameter aspect ratios for Reynolds
numbers below 2000. This fullls a unique role in the eld as
previous visualization studies have considered only jets at Rey-
nolds number 2300 or greater which often feature high jet veloci-
ties and increased acoustic noise, both of which can be undesirable
in certain applications.
2. Experimental apparatus and data collection
This experiment was conducted using a jet issuing from a tube
21 mm in diameter at Reynolds numbers based on jet diameter of
400 and 1400 for H/d spacing of 25. A schematic of the experi-
mental apparatus is shown in Fig. 1. Air from the building supply
enters through a pressure regulator. At the exit of the regulator
is a system of valves that directs the ow through one of three ow
meters depending on the ow rate required. Downstream of the
ow meters, the piping converges and enters a length of
19.1 mm ID reinforced vinyl tubing. A needle valve allows precise
adjustment of the ow rate. The tubing connects to the plenum
where layers of mesh and honeycomb in the plenum break down
any turbulent structures induced upstream.
At the bottom of the plenum is an aluminum tube of 21 mm ID
and length (L) of 10 diameters (210 mm) which forms the jet. The
tube entrance is packed with a honeycomb material and a series of
screens which straighten the ow within the tube. The jet issues
from the end of the tube and impinges on either a at plate or a
cylindrical pedestal. The cylindrical pedestal is the same as that
used in Fleischer and Nejad [10]. This pedestal impingement sur-
face is formed by a 19.9 mm 19.9 mm 6.4 mm square pedestal
machined into a solid copper cylinder of 31.8 mm in diameter
insulated at the pedestal edges by a snugly tting insulating ring
fabricated from a 6.4 mm thick, 50 mm diameter Teon ring (see
Fig. 1). This forms a cylindrical pedestal height (h) of 6.4 mm and
diameter (D) of 50 mm with a center copper section which can
be discretely heated. In this study, the pedestal is not heated.
Flow visualization was completed using the smoke-wire tech-
nique. The smoke is generated from a 0.1 mm diameter Nickel
Chromium wire with resistance of 21.3 X/m strung tightly across
the mouth of the jet. An oil mixture was applied to the wire gener-
ating evenly spaced oil droplets across the mouth of the jet. When
power is supplied to the wire, the oil droplets heat via Joule heat-
ing and begin to smoke. This ne smoke is entrained in the jet ow,
tracing streaklines. The smoke streaklines were recorded using
both a Canon Rebel XT digital still camera and a Sony DCR-
VX2000 high speed digital video camera. All images were taken
Fig. 1. Schematic of jet arrangement and pedestal surface.
Nomenclature
d jet tube diameter, m
D pedestal diameter, m
h pedestal height, m
H jet-to-surface distance, m
L tube length, m
r radial coordinate from stagnation point, m
Re Reynolds number based on jet diameter (Re = Ud/m),
dimensionless
U local velocity of jet, m/s
U
P
velocity uctuation of jet, m/s
U
C
velocity at jet exit centerline, m/s
x axial coordinate of jet measured from jet centerline at
tube exit, m
m Kinematic viscosity, m
2
/s
J.C. Duda et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2008) 17541758 1755
in black and white to increase streakline contrast and visibility. The
images underwent no post-processing or renement.
The experiment was conducted at Reynolds number based on
jet diameter of 400 and 1400 for H/d spacing of 25 jet diameters.
The desired ow rate was set using the owmeters and the result-
ing velocity and turbulence intensity proles for the jet were
checked radially and axially. A TSI IFA-300 constant temperature
anemometer system was used to measure the hot lm voltage data
and TSI ThermalPro software was used to calculate the velocity and
turbulence intensity proles. The probe was calibrated by TSI at
their facility over the velocity range 010 m/s and the calibration
features a mean error of less than 2% on voltage measurement
and correlation to velocity/turbulence. The IFA-300 contains a
thermocouple circuit that compensates for any temperature drift
over the course of the study. In the high turbulence regions veloc-
ity measurements are uctuating 813%, thus the reported results
are an average of 1020 individual measurements. These high tur-
bulent uctuations can affect the overall accuracy. The hot lm
probe position is controlled using a bislide driven by a stepper mo-
tor. The probe was positioned at even intervals of approximately
0.9 mm, yielding 24 data points over the 21 mm jet diameter.
The turbulence intensity is presented as the percentage of the
ratio of the velocity uctuations at a given location, U
P
, over the
velocity at that point, U. The velocity proles are presented as
velocity at a given location, U, normalized by the center line veloc-
ity, U
c
. The proles are measured radially across the mouth of the
jet and are presented nondimensionally as the radial distance, r,
from the centerline of the jet divided by the jet diameter, d. The ax-
ial prole is measured by positioning the hot-lm probe at the jet
exit centerline and measuring the velocity at various distances
away from the jet exit, x. Both radial and axial proles were re-
corded for the free jet.
The radial distributions of velocity and turbulence intensity for
Re = 400 (Fig. 2a) depict characteristics of laminar ow with low
turbulence intensity values. The radial distribution of velocity
and turbulence intensity at the jet exit for Re = 1400 depict the
characteristics of the beginnings of transitional ow as seen in
Fig. 2b. The slight skewness seen in the normalized velocity prole
is within the accuracy of the velocity measurements. The velocity
is uctuating with a turbulence intensity of 810%. The higher tur-
bulence intensity leads to more data point scattering and the inu-
ence of this increased turbulence will be clearly seen in the ow
visualization.
3. Results and discussion
3.1. Flow visualization of the jet impinging on a at plate
Several previous studies have found that toroidal vortices form
in the shear layer of an impinging jet prior to impacting a at sur-
face. When these structures reach the impingement surface, the
vortices follow the jet ow, moving radially outward from
the impingement point along the surface [35]. The location of
the impingement surface from the jet exit has been found to have
an effect on the formation of these structures. For small H/d values
the length of the free jet region is not sufcient for these structures
to form prior to impingement, however, vortices may still form in
the wall jet region as identied by Cornaro et al. [4].
This study features signicantly smaller Reynolds numbers than
all previous works and yet conrms the formation of vortices in the
wall jet region even for these low Re conditions. A dependence on
H/d spacing is also conrmed. As can be seen in Fig. 3a for Re = 400,
H/d = 3, no vortices form in the shear layer of the jet prior to
impingement. This impingement location is very close to the end
of the potential core which is at H/d = 3.5 for this jet. The break-
down of the potential core features an increase in turbulence and
the effects of this can be seen. While no vortices form prior to
impingement, the vortices form rapidly in the wall jet region and
are spaced more closely together than for lower H/d values. The
close spacing of the vortices leads to interesting behavior as the
wall jet develops. The vortices tend to collide resulting in vortex
combination and dissipation as seen in Fig. 3a. This behavior was
not observed for H/d = 2 (Fig. 3b).
A Reynolds number effect is also seen. As Reynolds number in-
creases, the turbulence in the shear layer increases and the coher-
ent vortex structures are less discernible. Those few vortex
structures that do form are signicantly smaller than those at low-
er Reynolds numbers. In the wall jet, the vortices form closer to the
stagnation region, typically between x/d = 0.75 and 1. Additionally,
signicant oscillation of the stagnation point is observed in con-
trast to the more stable stagnation point for lower Re as seen in
Fig. 3a, b. This stagnation point oscillation leads to instabilities in
the wall jet and faster transition to a turbulent wall jet leading to
early dissipation of the vortex structures.
3.2. Flow visualization of the jet impinging on a cylindrical pedestal
The addition of the 50 mm diameter, 6.4 mm high cylindrical
pedestal to the impingement surface is found to have a signicant
Fig. 2. Free jet velocity and turbulence intensity distributions for (a) Re = 400 and
(b) Re = 1400.
1756 J.C. Duda et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2008) 17541758
effect on the ow patterns observed at both Re = 400 and 1400, de-
spite the pedestals low height-to-diameter aspect ratio of 0.128.
At Re = 400 and H/d = 2 the formation of vortices in the wall jet is
strongly affected by the presence of the pedestal and this inuence
can be clearly seen by comparing Fig. 3b to Fig. 4a. For impinge-
ment on the at plate (Fig. 3b), the impingement is smooth and
uniform and the wall jet develops slowly along the length of the
impingement plate. Vortices form in the wall jet at x/d = 24. In
contrast, with the cylindrical pedestal in place (Fig. 4a), the ow
quickly separates over the pedestal edge. This leads to three dis-
tinct regions of the wall jet. There is a recirculation region at the
base of the pedestal, very similar to ow seen over a backwards
facing step, a separation zone where ow detaches from the pedes-
tal surface and does not reattach downstream, and a region of sep-
arated ow which reattaches after the pedestal boundary and
forms the wall jet. It is in this reattachment region that the vortices
begin to form. However, the vortices form much closer to the
impingement point than for the at plate, forming at x/d = 12.
As H/d increases some small but signicant effects can be seen
(Fig. 4b). First is the loss of the separation zone. As H/d increases,
the ow impacts the pedestal with less energy and the ow tends
to reattach. In Fig. 4b, it can be seen that vortices do form in the
wall jet region at x/d = 12, but the wall jet is much more turbu-
lent than that seen in Fig. 3a for impingement on the at plate.
The recirculation region tends to be roughly twice the pedestal
height in length and one pedestal height high and is independent
of jet-to-surface spacing for the range examined in this study.
The Reynolds number effect for the pedestal conguration is the
same as for the at plate. The turbulence in the shear layer in-
creases with Reynolds number and vortex structures are less likely
to form. Signicant oscillation of the stagnation point is again seen
leading to instabilities in the wall jet and faster transition to a tur-
bulent wall jet. The turbulent ow does not clearly separate over
the pedestal edge, but instead rapidly mixes and dissipates.
4. Conclusions
Smoke-wire visualization is used to provide insight into the
uid dynamics of low Reynolds number jets impinging on at
plates and cylindrical pedestals. The presence of the cylindrical
pedestal on the impingement surface is found to have a signicant
effect on the developed ow patterns. For impingement on the at
plate, the impingement is smooth and uniform and the wall jet
develops slowly along the length of the impingement plate with
vortices forming in the wall jet between x/d = 24. With the cylin-
drical pedestal in place however, the ow quickly separates over
the pedestal edge leading to three distinct regions of the wall jet.
There is a recirculation region at the base of the pedestal, a separa-
tion zone where ow detaches from the pedestal surface and does
Fig. 3. Jet impingement on a at plate for Re = 400, (a) H/d = 3 and (b) H/d = 2.
J.C. Duda et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2008) 17541758 1757
not reattach downstream (for low H/d spacing), and a region of
separated ow which reattaches after the pedestal boundary and
forms the wall jet. It is in this reattachment region that the vortices
begin to form in the wall jet but much closer to the impingement
point that seen for the at plate, forming at x/d = 12. With in-
creases in H/d spacing, all the ow tends to reattach indicating a
stabilization of the ow with an increase in spacing.
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1758 J.C. Duda et al. / Experimental Thermal and Fluid Science 32 (2008) 17541758