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Aerospace Science and Technology ••• (••••) ••••••

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Aerospace Science and Technology

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Experimental study on enhancement of supersonic twin-jet mixing by

vortex generators
Aqib Khan, Saif Akram, Rakesh Kumar ∗
Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh, 208016, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: Experimental results on the mean flow evolution and the control of single and twin compressible jets at
Received 25 September 2019 Mach 1.6 are presented. The jets issue from conical CD nozzles closely placed side-by-side resembling the
Received in revised form 28 September twin nozzle configuration of supersonic aircrafts. The results are relevant to scenarios where turbulent jet
2019
mixing, supersonic core length, thermal radiation and acoustic loading are of concern. Experiments show
Accepted 27 October 2019
Available online xxxx
that closely spaced twin jets grow, merge and interact near the inter-nozzle region that influences the
characteristic decay and jet spread. Moreover, the deviation in centerline characteristic decay is more
significant at off-design conditions. Vortex generators in the form of small metallic rectangular tabs
mounted at the nozzle exit plane in different azimuthal orientations are used to control the mixing
characteristics and the spread of these jets. Abrupt reduction in the core length and suppression of shock
cell structure is achieved in over to under-expanded conditions. Furthermore, the orientation of vortex
generators is found to significantly influence the development of jet flow field. The jet bifurcation and
formation of daughter streams with distorted quasi-periodic shock cells structure are visualized using the
schlieren technique. The underlying mechanisms for the observed effects and the behavior of daughter
streams are discussed.
© 2019 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Subsonic and supersonic jets are ubiquitous to the aerospace
industry. They have their role to play in turbojet engines for com-
mercial and military aviation, ram/scram-jet engines for hypersonic
cruise vehicles, rocket engines for air-to-space transitions, etc. The
performance of these aircraft engines depend to a great extent on
the ambient pressure and the interaction of exhaust gases with
the structural components in the immediate surroundings. Thrust,
drag, acoustic waves and side loads are the typical byproducts of
these interactions. Free shear layers in general and circular jets in
particular, for the aforesaid reasons, have been studied in great de-
tail since the advent of the aviation industry.
Jets are a typical case of free shear flows, which develop in
the absence of a solid surface. A very simplistic and first step to-
wards understanding such flows is the two-dimensional mixing
layer formed when two parallel streams with different velocities
merge downstream of a splitter plate [1,2]. Just downstream of
the trailing edge, the mixing layer develops an inflection in the
velocity profile, as shown in Fig. 1(a). Such flows are unstable at
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: rkm@iitk.ac.in (R. Kumar).
high Reynolds numbers and even a slight perturbation may trigger
Kelvin-Helmholtz type instability. The instability waves are ampli-
fied and the shear layer rolls up into discrete identifiable structures
(vortices), convecting, growing and retaining their identity before
getting fragmented [1]. This onsets the turbulence downstream.
Shear layer growth and primary instabilities follow similar mech-
anism in axisymmetric jets with differences attributed mainly to
the axisymmetric nature of the flowfield. The large-scale vortical
structures formed are found to be coherent for a wide range of
Reynolds numbers [3]. As the convective velocity increases, these
structures become less stable and less coherent. For supersonic
jets, the growth rate of the shear layer and the vortical structures
depends on the Mach number, temperature and the compressibility
effects [4]. During the process of vortex formation, there is a sig-
nificant increase in the entrainment of freestream fluid that results
in faster decay of the jet. Linear and nonlinear instability analysis
of jets using realistic velocity profiles with perturbations super-
imposed provide important details regarding the effects of flow
parameters on the growth of perturbations [5–8]. For a good re-
view on the topic, readers may refer to Ref. [9].
The growth of the shear layer and the dynamics of large-scale
structures play an important role in the behavior of jets. The pres-
ence of these structures is not only closely related to the acoustic
radiations but often dominates the other sources of acoustic waves

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ast.2019.105521
1270-9638/© 2019 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
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Fig. 1. Representation of flow structures, (a) Growth of instabilities in free shear layer flows and b) Experimental image of a jet showing the evolution of vortices. (b) is taken
from Ref. [50].
in subsonic and correctly expanded supersonic jets. Early exper-
iments by Tam et al. [10–12] and Plascho [13] showed strong
correlation between turbulent structures/instability waves and the
acoustic waves. Later, to support the argument that large-scale in-
stability waves are indeed the dominant sources of high-speed jet
noise, Tam et al. [14,15] and Mclaughlin et al. [16] showed that
the frequency at the peak of the noise spectrum is nearly equal to
the frequency of the most amplified instability wave of the jet and
that the peak noise radiations and the Mach wave radiations of the
most amplified instability are aligned [17]. Their calculations were
in close agreement with the experimental measurements of Tanna
et al. [18]. At conditions that are far from the correct expansion,
sonic and supersonic jets have a quasi-periodic shock cell struc-
ture in the core region. These shock waves oscillate and are the
sources of broadband shock associated noise and the screech tones.
The interaction between broadband turbulent structures and shock
waves generates acoustic waves over a large range of frequency
commonly termed as the broadband shock associated noise, which
is the most dominant of the noise components in the upstream
direction of a supersonic jet [18–20]. Screech tones are intense,
discrete frequency harmonics that appear as a sudden jump in the
noise spectrum. The intensities of screech tones are affected by
the Mach number, the jet temperature and the level of expansion.
A good review on supersonic jet noise is given by Tam [21]. Fur-
ther experimental studies demonstrated that the peak noise in the
acoustic far field is primarily generated by the large-scale coherent
structures [22–24].
The studies so far discussed in the present section highlighted
the role of turbulent eddies and shockwaves in the noise gen-
eration. It is important to design control techniques that can be
realized for practical applications where the presence of multiple
jet streams can hamper the performance of engineering systems
(military aircrafts with supersonic twin jet, for example). Shock
associated noise and screech tones that propagate in upstream di-
rection have been experimentally shown to produce intense pres-
sure fluctuations in twin jet proximity [25–27]. Phase coupling of
large-scale structures of each jet is responsible for intense inter-
nozzle pressures. Such loadings are attributed for the structural
failure of aircraft like F-15 and B-1B that comprises of very closely
spaced engine configuration [28]. A significant number of studies
have been performed to understand the dynamics of closely placed
twin jet dynamics. The jets exiting the twin nozzles with initially
thin shear layer near the nozzle lip drag the surrounding fluid due
to viscous forces. The shear layer thickens and the jet width in-
creases due to mass and momentum exchange at the free shear
boundaries and within the jet core due to mixing. The two individ-
ual jets then interact with each other, merge and undergo a strong
interaction around the midplane, transporting momentum from in-
dividual jet core to the internozzle region. Further downstream, the
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jets become fully developed and resemble a fully developed single
jet flow [29–35]. Wleizen [36], Shaw [37] and Moustafa [38,39]
reported that the acoustic waves produced by the mutual interac-
tion of two supersonic jets are a strong function of nozzle spacing,
pressure ratio, and jet Mach number, with a significant reduction
of screech tone amplitude when the nozzles are 3 to 5 diameter
apart.
Detrimental effects of off-design aerodynamic and aero-acoustic
characteristics of jets have compelled researchers to devise active
and passive control techniques like microjets, pulsed jets, alter-
ations in the nozzle exit shape like notches and chevrons, vortex
generators/tabs etc. For brevity, only tabs will be discussed here.
Interested readers can refer to the scientific literature for detailed
discussions on various other control techniques [40–49]. Tab-like
vortex generator (VG) is a simple flat metallic structure that can
increase the mixing in free shear flows by shedding spanwise vor-
tices which later align streamwise due to convection, and thus
serves as an effective passive control device. The role of stream-
wise structures in the dynamic and static properties of the shear
layer is studied by Liepmann and Gharib [50].
For mixing enhancement in jets, early transition to turbulence
and sustenance of large scales streamwise vortical structures is
important. The introduction of perturbations such as by vortex
generators (VGs) introduces vortical structures and cause transi-
tion of shear layer to the turbulent state at the very exit of the
nozzle. The generation of vortices at the nozzle exit results in a
faster spreading of flow by enhanced mass entrainment and cross-
stream mixing of fluids across the shear layer [51–54]. Based on
the extensive flow visualizations, Zaman [55] attributed the jet dis-
tortion and enhanced mixing to the upstream pressure hill and a
series of vortex filaments along the edges of the tab. Reeder et
al. [56] and Gretta et al. [57] probed deeper into the flow physics
and revealed that a tab generates a pair of counter-rotating trans-
verse vortices that become streamwise after some residual time
due to a differential pressure gradient. These vortices are accompa-
nied by secondary vortices, which together result in a rapid cross-
stream mixing and cause shear layer thickening [56,57]. Motivated
by their results, Samimy et al. [58] and Lou et al. [59] examined
the use of tabs for impinging jet flows. They noticed that micro
tabs were able to reduce the flow unsteadiness, particularly for un-
derexpanded flows. The size and strength of the vortices strongly
depend on the shape, size and orientation of the tab.
Although much of the studies pertaining to the use of tabs have
focused on single jets (for example [60], [61] etc.), attempts have
been made to use them for twin jets as well. Seiner et al. [28]
successfully used a small tab-like device mounted arbitrarily at
the nozzle exit with an objective of decoupling the twin jet in-
stability modes that are responsible for large dynamic pressures in
the internozzle region. Another study by Shaw [37] focused on the
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suppression of screech tones. He observed that the screech tone is
dependent on the shock-cell spacing, which in turn is dependent
on jet Mach number. His experimental results demonstrated that
coupling of twin jets caused amplified screech tone, and the place-
ment of tabs at the nozzle exit was very effective in decoupling
the jets and thus suppressing the screech tones.
From the preceding discussions, it can be summarized that the
aerodynamic and aeroacoustic characteristics of free supersonic
jets largely depend on the dynamics of the coherent structures
and the shock waves in the supersonic jet core. Thus, in order
to enhance the mixing characteristics of a supersonic jet, it is
quintessential to alter the strength and shape of the waves prevail-
ing in the nearfield by introducing some small-scale vortices by the
application of tabs at the exit of twin nozzles. The objective of the
present work is to investigate the viability of tabs as vortex gener-
ators (VGs) for improved performance of twin supersonic jets with
respect to mixing characteristics, which has important implications
in the aerospace industry. Moreover, unlike a single circular nozzle,
the twin jet is asymmetric. Therefore, the orientation of VGs also
becomes important. Two different orientations namely horizontal
(VGs in series) and vertical (VGs in parallel) are studied here. Be-
fore studying the influence of VGs and the effect of their relative
azimuthal orientation, uncontrolled single and twin jet character-
istics are discussed in brief.
2. Experimental details
2.1. Jet flow facility and nozzle
Experiments are conducted in the open jet facility at the
high-speed laboratory, Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur. The
measurements are conducted using two identical axisymmetric,
convergent-divergent(CD) nozzles with a design Mach number of
1.6 each. The divergent part of the nozzle is a straight walled con-
ical section with 8.39 degrees semi-divergence angle from throat
to the nozzle exit. The nozzles are machined in a circular brass
block of 50 mm height and 90 mm diameter. A flange at the base
of the block assists in mounting the block on the jet facility. Both
Fig. 2. Schematic of nozzle and VGs arrangement.
Fig. 3. Schlieren images with different knife edge orientation at NPR = 6.
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the nozzles are identical and are separated by a distance of 1.5de ,
where de is the nozzle exit diameter. The nozzles were manu-
factured by CNC electric discharge machining for precision. The
throat and exit diameter of nozzles are measured to be 10 ± 0.02
and 10.84 ± 0.02 mm, respectively. Nozzles are calibrated over a
range of nozzle pressure ratios. The calibration results show that
the Mach number at the exit plane of the nozzles is almost uni-
form. The Reynolds number of the Mach 1.6 jet issuing out of the
nozzle at designed NPR of 4.25 based on the exit diameter is ap-
proximately 106 . Any losses due to viscous effects are neglected
while calculating the Reynolds number. In the present study, two
rectangular VGs are deployed at the nozzle exit at two differ-
ent relative azimuthal orientations, as shown in Fig. 2(b). VGs are
made from 1 mm thick brass sheet. The percentage of the momen-
tum thrust loss suffered due to the VGs is approximately equal to
the total projected area of the VGs [62]. Therefore, the size of the
VGs should in general be minimum that can achieve the desired
mixing enhancement and shock-cell suppression. Two plain rectan-
gular VGs of length 3 mm and width 1.5 mm offering a blockage of
about 5% to the exiting flow are used in the present investigation.
2.2. Schlieren setup
To gain an insight into the physics of the wave structure for
controlled and uncontrolled jets, optical flow visualization is done
using schlieren technique. Schlieren is a non-intrusive flow vi-
sualization technique and gives a correct representation of the
compression and expansion waves prevailing in the flow field.
Schlieren setup detects the changes in refractive index of the
medium brought about by the first derivative in density. A knife
edge is used to cut off a fraction of light at the focus. The beam
displacement normal to the knife edge will translate into an en-
hanced intensity variation on the screen. Variations in density gra-
dients in the respective directions can be retrieved by suitably ori-
enting the knife edge. The technique is very suitable for supersonic
flows where strong gradients across the shock waves and mild gra-
dients in expansion waves and the shear layer region all need to be
resolved in the same image. The setup used is a Z-type with two
concave mirrors of 1.5 m focal lengths and a helium spark arc light
source. In the present experiments initially both vertical and hor-
izontal orientations were tried, but the images with vertical knife
edge were more revealing than the one with horizontal knife edge.
Hence, the vertical knife edge was finally adopted for all the ex-
periments. Effect of knife edge orientation on the schlieren images
for one case (NPR = 6) is shown in Fig. 3.
2.3. Instrumentation and Data accuracy
The pressure in the jets is measured along the jet centerline
and across the jet cross section at several axial locations using a
pitot tube of 0.4 mm inner diameter and 0.6 mm outer diame-
ter. The schematic of the coordinate system and the location of
measurement are shown in Fig. 4. The probe is mounted on a
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Fig. 4. Illustration of coordinate axes and data acquisition location. Dotted lines show the location of transverse data measurement corresponding to Figs. 15, 16 and 17.

three-dimensional traverse with a resolution of 0.1 mm in lin-

ear translation. It is ensured that the sensing probe hole is well
aligned with the flow in every test run. The ratio of nozzle exit to
the probe outer diameter is (10.844/0.6)2 = 327 and is very well
above the probe blockage limit of 64 [63]. The pitot pressures are
measured with an accuracy of ±3%. The repeatability of pressure
measurements is ±2%. One of the advantages of using pitot tube
for measurements in supersonic flow is that the error caused due
to slight misalignment relative to the flow direction is negligible.
A 16 channel Pressure Systems, Inc., 9010 transducer with a range
of 0 - 300 psi was used for pressure measurement. The transducer
provides the options to choose the number of samples to be av-
eraged by means of dip-switch settings. The specified accuracy for Fig. 5. Schematic of supersonic flow around a pitot probe.
the transducer is ±0.15% of the full scale [64].
The desired NPR was achieved by controlling the settling cham-   −1   γ γ−1
Pt 2γ γ −1 (γ + 1) M e2
ber pressure P 0 while the backpressure P b (atmospheric pres- = 1+ ( M e2 − 1) (1)
sure) remained constant. The pressure in the settling chamber was P0 γ +1 (γ − 1) M e2 + 2
maintained within ±2% of the desired NPR. The software used for
Using this model of the supersonic flow, the pressure at the
data acquisition has a separate window that plots the real-time
stagnation point can be calculated for the specified upstream con-
values of the stagnation chamber. The uncertainty in the mea-
ditions.
sured pressure values was around ±3%. The uncertainty associated
The complex interaction of waves and the shear layer results
with the Mach number based on the pitot pressure measurements
in a complex flow field with mixed supersonic and subsonic flow
at the nozzle exit is estimated to be ±2%. For details of the
fields in the jet. For such flows, the usual practice to use the
methodologies of calculating the uncertainties, readers can refer
measured pitot pressure is by non-dimensionalizing it with the
to Ref. [63].
settling chamber pressure. Same is also adopted in the present
analysis. The non-dimensionalized pitot pressure data can be used
3. Results
for quantifying the mean flow characteristics of free jets, such as
the core length, characteristic decay, shock-cells and the far-field,
Pitot probe is used to obtain the pressure values in the flow and is particularly suitable for comparative studies [66,67]. The
field. As and when the probe is exposed to the supersonic jet, a variation of dimensionless pitot pressure P t / P 0 along the jet axis
strong bow shock is formed ahead. The shock wave that is essen- with dimensionless streamwise distance, x/d is termed as center-
tially curved can be considered normal to the flow in the small line pressure decay (CPD). Noteworthy is the fact that CPD is a
region immediately upstream of the probe tip. Hence, the condi- good measure of jet mixing, indicating how fast the ambient fluid
tions across the shock, i.e., between points 1 and 2 in Fig. 5 are mass is entrained into the high-speed jet fluid. Higher entrainment
related by the normal shock relations. Furthermore, since the flow results in higher jet spread, stronger decay and weakening of shock
behind the normal shock wave is always subsonic, the decelera- waves in the supersonic jet core. Therefore, to investigate the mix-
tion from point 2 to point 3 in Fig. 5 may be assumed to be an ing characteristics of uncontrolled and controlled twin jets, with
isentropic process. The pressure sensed by the probe is neither two rectangular VGs placed at the nozzle exit, the pitot pressure
static nor the stagnation pressure of the freestream, rather, it is the P t is measured along the jet centerline upto an axial distance of
16d. NPR is varied from 3 to 7, ranging from over-expanded to
total pressure of the subsonic flow behind the shock wave stand-
highly under-expanded cases.
ing ahead of the probe. If the actual pressure of the freestream
is required, one has to correct the pitot pressures for the pres-
3.1. Twin jet vs single jet
sure loss across the shock. Since the supersonic jet core is highly
wave-dominated, the Mach number in the core varies from point
3.1.1. Single jet flow field
to point and also the shock waves in different cells are of varying The centerline pitot pressure decay results for the uncontrolled
strength. Nevertheless, the data are accurate enough to capture the single jets for NPRs 3 to 7 are shown in Fig. 6. It is clear from the
overall features of the jet, such as the core length, characteristic plots that both the shock-cell size and the spacing increase as the
decay, fully developed or self similar zone, the number of shock- nozzle pressure ratio increases. Fig. 7 presents the time-averaged
cells and the spacing between them [65–68]. The Mach number at schlieren images for NPR = 4.0 and 7.0. A train of shock cells is
the nozzle exit can be calculated using the normal shock relation observed downstream of the nozzle exit, and the same can be in-
given below. ferred from the oscillatory nature of the CPD plots given in Fig. 6
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for different pressure ratios. From the one-dimensional isentropic
flow analysis, the NPR required for correct expansion of M 1.6
nozzle is 4.25. Therefore, at the NPR of 4.0, the jet is slightly over-
expanded. Oblique over-expanded shock wave envelope is formed
close to the nozzle exit, which converges into a point termed as
shock cross-over point, as shown in Fig. 7(a). Although the flow
at the nozzle exit is over-expanded, still some expansion near the
centerline close to the nozzle exit occurs until the shock cross-over
point is reached. This expansion that is due to the relaxing effect of
the internal fluid exiting from the nozzle causes an increase in the
Mach number, which in turn increases the strength of the normal
shock wave ahead of the pitot probe. Stronger shock wave results
in higher stagnation pressure losses that reflect in low pitot pres-
sures. It is for this reason that the pitot pressure for NPR = 4.0
(in fact, the explanation holds for all the NPRs) decreases till the
flow reaches the shock cross-over point at x = 1.2d for NPR = 4.0
(Fig. 6). At NPR = 7, since the nozzle is under-expanded, strong ex-
pansion waves bounded by the barrel shock wave are formed at
the nozzle exit, as shown in Fig. 7(b). The barrel shock wave ter-
minates into a Mach disk that appears as a normal shock in the
2-dimensional schlieren images. The radius of the Mach disk in-
creases as the NPR increases. The triple point (essentially a triple
line for circular jet-like flows) formed by the intersection of the in-
cident shock wave, Mach disk and the reflected shock wave can be
clearly seen. Mach disk and the reflected shock wave causes strong
deceleration of the flow to subsonic Mach numbers. Schlieren im-
age for NPR = 6 with horizontal knife (Fig. 3(b)) reveals the slip
line originating from the triple point. The formation of Mach disk
is also evident from the minimum pitot pressure value at an axial
location of around 2d in the CPD plot given in Fig. 6.
Fig. 6. Centerline pressure decay of single uncontrolled M 1.6 jet.
Fig. 7. Schlieren images of uncontrolled single jet.
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3.1.2. Twin jet flow field
Fig. 9 shows the schlieren images of a single jet at NPR = 5
and a corresponding image of twin jet. The flow-field from the in-
teraction of closely placed twin jet plumes is very complicated,
particularly at higher NPRs. Where a single jet is free to expand in
all the directions, a twin jet has an azimuthal asymmetry and is in-
fluenced by the presence of the neighboring jet. The region of the
flow lying between the two jets is referred to as the internozzle
region. The shear layer entrains fluid from the surroundings that
causes thickening in the shear layer and increase in the jet spread.
The internozzle region because of the slight suction effect caused
by mass entrainment results in the unbalanced lateral force on the
jet structure causing the jet axes to lean towards each other, al-
beit very slightly. The flow field in the internozzle region of a twin
jet is different from the flow field of the single jet at the same
corresponding radial location due to the interaction of the inner
shear layer. These flow features, to some extent are reflected in
Fig. 8, where centerline pressure decay of single and twin jet are
plotted together for comparison. The plots show the differences in
the jet flow structure due to their mutual interaction. A single jet
undergoes faster characteristic decay than their twin counterpart
for all the NPRs. This is because of the fact that a single jet is
free to entrain fluid mass from all the directions, unlike a twin jet.
Moreover, the twin jet in over-expanded case, as shown in Fig. 8
(a) does not undergo much interaction resulting in centerline de-
cay rate not significantly different from the corresponding single
jet. The two plots overlap each other in the vicinity of the noz-
zle exit, and start deviating as the jets start spreading more and
more. The difference is significant beyond x/d = 5.0 for NPR = 3.
The difference in the characteristics of single and twin jet is more
contrasting for under-expanded case as it is evident form Fig. 8(b).
Since the spacing between the two nozzles is kept fixed in present
experiments, the limited internozzle space is more influenced at
higher NPRs. At higher NPRs, jets expand more downstream of the
nozzle exit resulting in more interaction in the internozzle region
from the very beginning. Further, since the single jet is free to en-
train fluid from all directions, the single jet decay faster than the
twin-jet in the characteristic decay zone for both (over-expanded
and under-expanded cases).
3.2. CPD of uncontrolled and controlled twin jets
To enhance the mixing characteristics of the twin jet, passive
control techniques in the form of vortex generators have been
studied since long by different researchers for single jets. Although
there are a few pieces of literature on controlled twin jets, they are
of preliminary nature and considering the complexity of dynamics
involved in twin jet problem, there is a vast scope for exploring
their characteristics. In the present work, the passive control of
the jet is achieved by deploying small VGs offering 5% blockage to
the outgoing stream at the nozzle exit as shown in Fig. 2(b). The
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Fig. 8. Centerline pressure decay comparison of single and twin jet.
Fig. 9. Schlieren images at NPR 5.
VGs are placed diametrically opposite at the exit of each nozzle
in two orientations, one in series (horizontal orientation) and the
other in parallel (vertical orientation). These orientations are se-
lected for investigation as the extreme cases of all possible relative
azimuthal orientations. Figs. 10(a) and 10(b) show the CPD plots
for NPR = 3 and 4 respectively. The nozzle is designed for correct
expansion at NPR = 4.25. Thus at NPR = 3 and 4, the nozzle is
over-expanded. Because of the over-expansion, oblique shock wave
envelope is formed near the nozzle exit. Even though the nozzle
is overexpanded, expansion fans are present at the corners of the
nozzle owing to the relaxation effect when the fluid experiences a
sudden change in area while leaving the nozzle walls. However, the
pressure at the nozzle exit is lower than the ambient pressure that
results in the formation of an oblique shock wave. This shock wave
decelerates and compresses the flow to equilibrate with the atmo-
sphere. The combination of oblique shocks and expansion waves
turn the flow parallel to the jet axis. The location where oblique
shock envelope converges into a point at the jet axis is termed
as shock cross-over point, represented by the first minima in the
CPD plots of uncontrolled jets. Even though the individual oblique
shock wave is weak, their amplified effect at the cross-over point
proves to be very strong, causing the flow to become subsonic just
downstream. The subsonic flow again accelerates due to momen-
tum exchange from the surrounding fluid and attains the transonic
values. The first peak after the shock cross-over point in the CPD
plots corresponds to the sonic state achieved by the jet down-
stream of the cross-over point. Fig. 11(a) shows the position of
the first crossover point. At higher pressure ratios, the shock cross-
over point is stretched and becomes a Mach disk, as can be seen
in Fig. 11(d) for uncontrolled twin jet at NPR = 7. Downstream of
the Mach disk, the flow is essentially subsonic in nature. The sonic
flow further accelerates to higher Mach number due to the coupled
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effect of two mechanisms. The first mechanism is the momentum
exchange from high speed surrounding fluid and the second is the
conversion of jet thermal energy into kinetic energy brought about
by the expansion waves formed in response to the interaction of
shock waves and the constant pressure jet boundary. These mech-
anisms result in continuous increase in the jet velocity near the
centerline, until it reaches the second shock cross-over point. This
cycle repeats as long as the flow in the jet core remains supersonic.
The length measured from nozzle exit to the axial location
where the local flow Mach number drops to 1.0 and the flow be-
comes permanently subsonic all the way downstream is defined
as the core length for supersonic jet. The oscillatory nature of the
CPD plots ceases and characteristic decay begins where supersonic
core ends. Supersonic core length is primarily dependent on the
nozzle pressure ratio (NPR) and the nozzle dimensions and can be
estimated using the pitot probe measurements. The detailed pro-
cedure for core length estimation can be seen elsewhere [67,68].
Table 1 shows the core lengths of the uncontrolled as well as con-
trolled twin jets at different NPRs and the corresponding reduction
in core lengths by the application of vertical and horizontal VGs.
The length of the wave-dominated supersonic core is an indirect
measure of the mixing rate of a jet in the near-field region. Shorter
the core length, the higher is the mixing rate. Therefore, it can be
inferred from Fig. 10 and Table 1 that by placing small VGs at the
exit of a converging-diverging nozzle, the mixing characteristic of
a twin jet is drastically affected. The data shows that a core length
reduction of around 70 to 85% is achieved by the use of vortex
generators in the form of VGs. Thus the controlled twin jets have
much higher mixing rate in the nearfield, as compared to uncon-
trolled jets. This higher mixing can be attributed to the fact that
as soon as VGs are placed at the nozzle exit, bow shock appears
ahead of each tab that leads to higher pressure on the upstream
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Fig. 10. centerline pressure decay comparison of uncontrolled and controlled twin jet.
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8 A. Khan et al. / Aerospace Science and Technology ••• (••••) ••••••
Fig. 11. Schlieren images of uncontrolled twin jet.
Table 1
Core lengths of uncontrolled and controlled twin jets at different NPRs.
Nozzle pressure Core length of Core length of twin jet with
ratio uncontrolled jet vertical VGs
NPR ( L / D )unc ( L / D )cv
3 8.57 1.26
4 8.79 2.28
4.25 8.00 2.28
5 11.18 3.24
7 16.85 4.19
side of the tab [56]. This high pressure forces the fluid stream to
curve around the tab sides resulting in the formation of transverse
vortices. These transverse vortices travel downstream and after a
due amount of time transform into axial vortices due to the pres-
sure differential prevalent in the flow field. Since these vortices are
of comparatively larger size, they create suction effect leading to
mass entrainment from the surrounding atmosphere. Due to this
continuous mass entrainment, they assist in higher spreading of
the jet in radial direction and eventually break down into smaller
vortices as they become more unstable. These small-scale vortices
are efficient mass transporters, and thus result in a higher mixing
rate of the jet [51,52]. Fig. 14 shows the schematic representation
of the vortices at the nozzle exit in the presence of vortex gener-
ators. The VGs shed small-scale vortices from their edges, which
significantly contributes to an enhancement in the mixing ability
of the twin jet. Furthermore, it is apparent from the schlieren im-
ages that the VGs mitigate the shock and expansion waves at the
nozzle exit leading to considerably weaker waves.
3.3. Flow visualization
The conventional Z-type schlieren setup with a vertical knife
edge is employed in this work. Fig. 11 shows the schlieren images
of the uncontrolled twin jet for over, correct and under-expanded
modes. Flow direction is from left to right. Because of the vertical
orientation of the knife edge, the density variations in the hori-
zontal direction are enhanced, and the compression and expansion
regions appear with dark and bright contrast respectively. Shock
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Core length of twin jet Change in core length Change in core length
with horizontal VGs by vertical VGs by horizontal VGs
( L / D )ch ( L / D )cv (%) ( L / D )ch (%)
1.78 85.29 79.23
1.93 74.06 78.04
3.32 71.50 58.5
3.34 71.21 71.5
4.81 75.27 70.13
cells formed by repetitive reflections of compression and expansion
waves, as long as the reaccelerated flow reaches the supersonic
speed, are visible in the images. The dark and bright regions in the
schlieren images appear as triangular patches because of the ori-
entation of the oblique shock waves. Shock cross-over point where
the conical three-dimensional shock front converges into a point
is shown in the Fig. 11(a) and the shock cell length can be taken
as the distance between two successive shock cross-over points.
Weak shock cells prevail for low NPRs, as can be seen in Fig. 11(a),
whereas, for higher NPRs, the strength increases with increase in
the NPR. For the designed condition, the uncontrolled nozzle was
not found to undergo shock free expansion. This is because the
nozzle wall was not contoured for aerodynamically clean flow.
The nozzle at NPR = 7 is highly under-expanded. The flow at
such high NPRs exits with strong expansion waves as can be seen
from Fig. 11(d). The flow downstream of the nozzle exit, being
at high pressure, expands to high supersonic Mach numbers. The
shock and expansion waves due to lateral interaction of the twin
streams do not exhibit a typical diamond structure. Flow veloc-
ity along the nozzle centerline increases until the flow reaches the
Mach disk. This acceleration phenomenon results in the low pitot
pressure values in the CPD plots, as shown in Fig. 8 for uncon-
trolled twin jet case. Katanoda et al. [65] studied the structure of
M = 1.5 and 2.0 jet using pitot probe. Their results demonstrated
that insertion of pitot probe does not disturb the position of Mach
disk in supersonic free jets.
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Fig. 12. Schlieren images of twin jet controlled by vortex generators in vertical orientation.

Fig. 13. Schlieren images of twin jet controlled by vortex generators in horizontal orientation.

The overall performance of the VGs depends on their relative
orientation with respect to the jets axis. Also, the influence of
the relative azimuthal orientation of the VGs at the nozzle exit
is dependent on the nozzle pressure ratio. Based on the present
observations and the background understanding from the previous
literature on the jet mixing, we explain the underlying mechanism
that governs the mixing enhancement caused by the VGs used in
the present study. For a single nozzle case, such studies are done in
details and some of them are referred in section 1. When the rect-
angular tab type vortex generators are placed at the nozzle exit,
as shown in Figs. 2(b), they alter the nozzle exit geometry, mak-
ing it asymmetric that influences the vortex size and distribution,
as discussed earlier in section 3.2. Also, the VGs break the original
clean shock-cell structure into more staggered one, as can be seen
in Figs. 12 and 13. The flow field becomes complicated because of
the presence of two jets in proximity. The fluid from the stagnation
chamber is pushed into the nozzle by virtue of pressure difference
imposed across it. The fluid accelerates to sonic conditions at the
throat and then expands further to the supersonic speeds based on
the NPR. Except for very low NPRs, the flow at the exit of the noz-
zle is in supersonic or near sonic state. The high speed fluid exiting
the nozzle is shocked by the presence of the vortex generators. The
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Fig. 14. Schematic of flow at the nozzle exit demonstrating the distribution of vortices at the nozzle wall and along the VGs. The center arrow shows the flow direction. The
figure is drawn with tab size exaggerated for representation purpose.

Fig. 15. Transverse pressure profiles of the uncontrolled and controlled twin jets at different x/d locations for NPR = 3.

fluid is abruptly turned sidewise around the tab surface through
a strong shock envelope. The entire fluid stream that was earlier
circular in cross-section is bifurcated into two non-circular daugh-
ter streams on either side of the VGs (see Fig. 12. These daughter
streams have their own supersonic core with quasi-periodic shock
cell structure that decays faster than the parent stream in uncon-
trolled case. In the present case of twin jets, four daughter streams
are formed. These newly formed streams bound a low momentum
region near the nozzle centerline and immediately downstream of
the tab surface. The orientation of VGs actually governs the ori-
entation of these daughter streams, which ultimately dictates the
evolution of the entire flowfield downstream. For vertically ori-
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A. Khan et al. / Aerospace Science and Technology ••• (••••) ••••••
Fig. 16. Transverse pressure profiles of the uncontrolled and controlled twin jets at different x/d locations for NPR = 4.25.
ented VGs (Fig. 2), the streams are bifurcated laterally in the plane
of the jet axes such that the two streams on the outer side are di-
rected further away from the internozzle region, whereas the other
two daughter streams are pushed towards each other in the inter-
nozzle region. The outer streams have more opportunity to entrain
low momentum fluid from the surroundings as compared to the
inner streams. The inner streams interact and almost merge into a
single stream in the internozzle region. For low NPRs, such as NPR
= 3 as shown in Fig. 12(a), the jet diameter is small and the inner
streams initially move side by side gradually mixing and merg-
ing into one at some downstream location. On the other hand, for
NPR = 7, the jet diameter is larger because of strong expansion at
the exit. For such high NPRs, the inner streams merge earlier near
the nozzle exit, as shown in Fig. 12(d). Shock wave reflection and
the coupling of the two daughter streams resulting in higher mo-
mentum in the internozzle region can be seen from the schlieren
images. High momentum near the centerline region of the con-
trolled twin jets is also reflected in the transverse pressure profiles
shown in Figs. 15 to 17 and discussed later in Sec. 3.4 in detail.
For uncontrolled jets, on the other hand, the internozzle region
near the nozzle exit is the dead region with slight suction until
the inner shear layers of the two jet streams merge.
Figs. 13 do not show jet bifurcation since VGs are aligned nor-
mal to the camera view line. The jets, in this case, are bifurcated
vertically upside-down. As compared to the vertical orientation
case, there is less interaction between the two jet streams near the
internozzle region. The jet streams seem to evolve independently
and undergo faster decay due to the ample amount of low mo-
mentum fluid in the surrounding region. For highly underexpanded
case, i.e., for NPR = 7, as shown in Fig. 13(d), the two jet streams
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11
seem to interact near the nozzle exit plane due to larger jet diame-
ter caused by strong expansion waves. For high NPRs, the jet shear
layer tends to bulge outwards resulting in larger jet diameter fos-
tering early merging of the two streams near the centerline region.
However, this interaction near the internozzle region is less se-
vere. There is a drastic reduction of the supersonic core length and
the shock cells are suppressed at all the pressure ratios. Compar-
ing Fig. 13(b) and (c), the jet spread is larger for vertically oriented
VGs.
3.4. Transverse pressure profiles
The CPD plots shown in Fig. 10 give a good qualitative idea of
the decay rate and the core lengths. However, since the measure-
ments pertaining to these plots are done along the centerline of
any one of the two jets, these do not give the full picture of the
flow field evolution of the controlled cases. For instance, the place-
ment of vortex generators at the very exit of the nozzle results in
counter rotating vortices and the jet bifurcation with two high mo-
mentum streams bounding the low momentum region near the jet
center as demonstrated by the schlieren images in Sec. 3.3. Heeb et
al. [69] in a recent investigation using PIV data demonstrated the
formation of counter rotating vortices form vortex generators of
different sizes. Their results showed that the streamwise vortices
influenced the jet cross section and caused an appreciable reduc-
tion in shock cell spacing. Of particular interest in the present case
is to study the jet evolution in the cross-stream direction giving
a broader picture of the shear layer thickening and the jet spread.
With this objective, the transverse pressure variation in y-direction
was measured for selected NPRs. A representative set of profile
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12 A. Khan et al. / Aerospace Science and Technology ••• (••••) ••••••
Fig. 17. Transverse pressure profiles of the uncontrolled and controlled twin jets at different x/d locations for NPR = 5.
plots at NPR = 3 (overexpanded), NPR = 4.25 (correctly expanded)
and NPR = 5 (underexpanded) are presented in Figs. 15 to 17 re-
spectively. All the measurements were done at six different axial
locations (x/d = 0 to x/d = 10.0) covering the nearfield and the
characteristic decay regimes.
There is a marked difference between the profile plots of un-
controlled and controlled twin jets. The peak pressure value of the
twin jets controlled by both vertical and horizontal VGs rapidly
falls down as we move away from the nozzle exit towards farfield.
This is unlike uncontrolled jet for which the dimensionless peak
pressure ( pt / p 0 ) at x/d = 10.0 lies close to 0.7, whereas it re-
duces to around 0.4 for controlled jet at all the NPRs studied. This
rapid decay in pressure is a sign of improved mixing characteris-
tics by the application of VGs. Figs. 15 to 17 show that very close
to the nozzle exit, the pressure profiles are similar with almost
same peak values. But as we move away, the shape of the profiles
of jet controlled with vertical VGs suddenly changes. At x/d = 0.0,
we have two broad peaks with a valley at the center. At x/d = 2.0,
instead of two peaks, we have four peaks for vertical VGs. This is
due to the jet bifurcation. As was discussed in Sec. 3.3, the twin
jet bifurcates into four jets by placing two sets of vertical VGs. As
we move further downstream (x/d = 5.0 and 10.0), three peaks
with two intermediate valleys are visible. This is due to merging
of the two inner jets, as can be seen in schlieren images (Fig. 12).
Although the twin jet is bifurcated into four jets by the applica-
tion of horizontal VGs also, only two peaks are visible since we
are moving our pitot probe in the y-direction (which is perpendic-
ular to the direction of jet bifurcation). Moreover, since the pitot
probe moves in the low-pressure central region for horizontally
tabbed jets, the peak values are slightly lower than compared to
that of vertically tabbed jets. The intense fluctuations in the cen-
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tral region of the vertical tabbed jet at x/d = 1.0 indicates that
the two jets begin to merge at around 1d. As we move to around
5d, the two merged jets stabilize, resulting in a smooth curve
(Fig. 15(d)).
The jet spread in y-direction very close to the nozzle exit is al-
most same for the uncontrolled jet and jet controlled with vertical
VGs. As we move slightly downstream, the jet spread of the ver-
tically tabbed twin jets is the highest, as is visible from Figs. 15
to 17. For example, at NPR = 3, the jet spread for the controlled jet
is around 5d, whereas it is only 3d for uncontrolled jet at an axial
distance of 5d. Therefore, it can be inferred from the profile plots
that the vertical VGs lead to a considerably higher rate of mass
entrainment from the ambient.
The addition of VGs makes the pressure profiles asymmetric in
nature, unlike the uncontrolled jet which are almost symmetric.
The asymmetricity is the result of small and large-scale vortices
being introduced into the jet flow field from the sides of the VGs
and due to the formation of daughter streams. Since the flow in-
side the nozzle is supersonic, bow shocks are formed upstream of
the VGs leading to a sudden increase in pressure which in turn re-
sults in vortex shedding. These vortices continuously interact with
the comparatively larger azimuthal vortices shed from the nozzle
lip and the shear layer. Furthermore, these vortices, as they convect
downstream, also interact with the shocks and expansion waves
prevalent in the flow field resulting in enhanced mixing of the jet
from the surroundings. This enhanced mixing is ultimately respon-
sible for reduction in supersonic core length and higher character-
istic decay of the jet.
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A. Khan et al. / Aerospace Science and Technology ••• (••••) ••••••
4. Conclusions
The investigations in the present experimental work has
brought about certain key aspects of the effects of using small
tab like vortex generators (VGs) as passive means for controlling
twin jet flowfield, which are interesting and of much practical
relevance. It was observed that the VGs increase the spread and
significantly enhance the decay rate of the twin jet at all the NPRs.
While the orientation of the VGs affect the characteristic decay
along the centerline of the jet, the influence on the overall jet
spread is even more pronounced. The enhanced mixing and the
faster characteristic decay was attributed to the vortices shed by
VG, which are convected and reoriented streamwise by the sur-
rounding high momentum fluid in the jet. While convecting, these
vortices entrain and drag the surrounding low-speed fluid causing
cross-stream momentum exchange leading to faster jet decay.
The supersonic twin jet upon encounter with the VGs bifurcates
into four daughter supersonic streams separated by the subsonic
fluid in the wake of the VGs. The bifurcation of the jet results in
the formation of daughter streams that are deflected away from
the jet centerline. The orientation of these daughter streams de-
pends on the azimuthal orientation of the VGs, and influences the
mutual interaction of the twin jets. To further study the evolution
of daughter streams, transverse data are plotted for controlled and
uncontrolled cases. It was observed that the daughter streams be-
have as separate supersonic jets that undergo characteristic decay
hand-in-hand. For the vertically oriented VGs, the inner streams
merge into one (unlike the horizontal VGs) resulting into three
streams in total. The results showed that the orientation of VGs
when used for twin jets will give directivity to the flow field that is
very well represented in the mean flow characteristics such as jet
spread and decay rate. This directivity is expected to have implica-
tions on the acoustic spectrum and the directivity of the sound
waves that has been the topic of much concern in the recent
decades. Further research on the topic will be carried out in the
future using more sophisticated flow diagnostic techniques with a
particular focus on the unsteady nature of the flowfield and the
acoustic radiations.
Declaration of competing interest
On behalf of all authors, the corresponding author states that
there is no competing interest of any kind.
Acknowledgements
The research performed in this work was financially supported
by the Department of Aerospace Engineering at the Indian Insti-
tute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, India, which is gratefully acknowl-
edged. We also acknowledge the help and support provided by Mr.
Suresh Mishra for carrying out the experiments.
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