702

2017,29(4):702-715
DOI: 10.1016/S1001-6058(16)60782-5

Large eddy simulation of turbulent flow structure and characteristics in an

annular jet pump *

Mao-sen Xu (徐茂森)1,2, Xue-long Yang (杨雪龙)3, Xin-ping Long (龙新平)1,2, Qiao Lü(吕桥)1,2
1. Hubei Key Laboratory for Waterjet Theory and New Technology, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China
2. School of Power and Mechanical Engineering, Wuhan University, Wuhan 430072, China,
E-mail: xumaosen@whu.edu.cn
3. Research Institute of Nuclear Power Operation, Wuhan 430074, China

(Received August 17 2016, Revised November 28, 2016)

Abstract: The large eddy simulation(LES) of the flow characteristics in an annular jet pump (AJP) is conducted, and the flow
characteristics are systematically analyzed from both time-averaged and instantaneous aspects. The jet expansion, the velocity
distribution and the energy are considered to analyze the time-averaged evolution of the flow field in the AJP. The transient flow
characteristics can also be acquired from the analysis of the turbulence intensity and the Reynolds stress. The simulation
demonstrates that in the time-averaged characteristics, the potential cores increase linearly with the increase of the flow ratio. With
the flow development, the jet half-width gradually increases and the residual energy coefficient decreases. Compared with the
distribution of the time-averaged axial velocity, that of the instantaneous velocity is more complex and disorderly. The high intensity
of the axial turbulence mainly occurs in the mixing layer and the near-wall regions of the diffuser. The annular distribution of the
Reynolds stress is mainly in the mixing layer and the recirculation region. There is a low-stress zone between the mixing layer and
the high-stress region in the wall-boundary layer. The intensity of the spanwise vortexes is larger than that of the streamwise vortexes,
and therefore, the former make greater contribution to the total vorticity. This research provides a better understanding of the flow
characteristics in the AJP.

Key words: Annular jet pump, large eddy simulation(LES), flow characteristics, vortex

Introduction important tool to study the AJP. Shimizu et al.[3]

The jet pump is applied in several situations for
its simple structure without rotating parts and for its
reliable operation. Its operation principle can be
simply described as transferring the momentum from
the primary to secondary flows. According to the
nozzle position, the jet pump can be classified into
two types: the central jet pump (CJP) and the annular
jet pump (AJP). Compared with the CJP, the broad
flow passage of the AJP offers numerous potential
applications in the solid particle conveyance, such as
for potatoes, capsules and even living fish[1,2].
In the past decades, the experiment has been an
* Project supported by the National Natural Science
Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51179134, 11472197 ).
Biography: Mao-sen Xu (1989-), Male, Ph. D. Candidate
Corresponding author: Xin-ping Long,
E-mail: xplong@whu.edu.cn
investigated the impact of structure parameters and
swirl components on the performance of the AJP.
Elger et al.[4] introduced the momentum ratio J as a
dimensionless parameter to evaluate the recirculation
region in the AJP. Duan and Sun[5] studied the
influence of compositional parameters on the perfor-
mance of the AJP with a multi-nozzle. Xiao et al.[6]
analyzed the cavitation performance, the inception and
the development at the throat inlet and the shedding of
the cavity cloud in the diffuser. They[7] also used a
high-speed visualization method to study the cavita-
tion in the AJP and captured recirculation regions in
the shear layer and three types of cavity clouds.
With the development of the CFD, numerical
methods are used gradually in the AJP research, along
with experimental methods. Xiao et al.[8] investigated
the appearance, the shape and the position of the recir-
culation regions in the AJP. Yang et al.[9] designed a
trumpet-shaped diffuser to improve the performance of

the AJP and analyzed the flow details.
In the recent numerical studies, the RANS model
is widely used in the AJP simulation. Yet a more
advanced simulation method, the large eddy simula-
tion (LES), is rarely used in the AJP studies. The
selection of an appropriate turbulence model is the
crucial issue for an accurate simulation. Compared
with the Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS)
model, the LES method is more suitable to capture the
flow details and to study the internal flows[10-14]. The
LES is a prediction method for large-scale turbulence
flows. The large eddies in the energy-containing
region and the small eddies in the dissipation region
are solved separately. The former are directly solved
by the Navier-Stokes equation and the latter are
solved based on the relationship between a sub-grid
model and a large eddy. The LES reduces the predic-
tion errors caused by the inaccuracy of turbulence
modeling, because the large-scale turbulent fluctua-
tion consumes 80% of the turbulent kinetic energy.
Therefore, compared with the RANS, the LES can
give a more accurate calculation result and is more
suitable for studies of mechanism. Luo et al.[15] used
the LES to simulate the unsteady cavity shedding
from a twisted hydrofoil and they[16] predicted be-
haviors of the cavitation shedding dynamics, including
the cavity growth, the break-off and the collapse down-
stream.
The operation of the AJP is simple. However, the
mixing of the primary and secondary flows is a severe
energy–momentum exchange process, including se-
veral complex turbulent phenomena, such as the shear
flow and the recirculation. Limited researches have
captured the flow characteristics of the AJP, mostly
without combining them with their mechanisms sys-
tematically. A series of studies focused on the per-
formance improvement and the structural optimiza-
tion of the AJP. However, very few scholars pay atten-
tion to the internal flow and relate it with the external
characteristics. Therefore, based on the LES method,
the present paper investigates the flow characteristics
in the AJP. The jet expansion is described by the
potential core length and the jet half-width. Mean-
while, a residual energy coefficient  is proposed to
analyze the change of the total energy. The vorticity
distributions, including the total streamwise and
spanwise vorticities, are also discussed. Moreover, the
turbulence intensity distribution and the Reynolds
stress distribution are obtained from the numerical
results to analyze the flow mechanisms in the AJP.
1. Research strategy
1.1 AJP structure
The AJP mainly comprises of a suction duct, an
703
annular nozzle, a suction chamber, a throat and a
diffuser (Fig.1). The primary flow with a high pre-
ssure accelerates through the annular nozzle and has
an entrainment effect on the secondary flow. These
two flows mix in the suction chamber and the throat
and then flow out via the diffuser with a rise of
pressure. According to our previous studies of the
structural optimization[9], the main structural parame-
ters are set as follows: Ds = 50 mm , Dd = 80 mm ,
Dt = 40 mm , Lt = 120 mm ,  = 20o and  = 6o .
The area ratio m is an important parameter for the
AJP and is defined as follows
Ath Dt2
m= = 2 (1)
Aj Douter  Dinner
2
where Ath and A j are the cross-sectional areas of
the throat and the annular nozzle, Dinner is the outer
diameter of the annular tip and Douter is the inner
diameter of the suction chamber. In the present paper,
the AJP with m = 1.72 is considered. Other
parameters, such as the flow ratio q , the pressure
ratio h and the pump efficiency  , are defined as
follows:
Qs
q= (2)
Qj
Pc  Ps
h= (3)
Pj  Pc
 = qh (4)
where Qs is the secondary volumetric flow rate, Q j
is the primary volumetric flow rate, Pc is the total
pressure of the mixed flow, Ps is the total pressure of
the secondary flow and Pj is the total pressure of the
primary flow.
1.2 Numerical method
In the simulation, the AJP is simplified as an axial
symmetry model. The computational domain and the
local mesh are shown in Fig.2. To ensure the
calculation stability, both the suction and outlet duct
lengths are set five times as long as their diameter
lengths, respectively. The original point is located at
the circle center of the cross-section of the throat inlet.
The x - axis is along the flow direction and the y - z
plane is perpendicular to the x - axis. The suction
chamber profile grids and 1/4 of the cross-section
grids at the nozzle in Fig.2 indicate that the grids near
the axis are sparse, where the velocity gradient is small.
704
Fig.1 Schematic diagram of AJP
Fig.2 Computational domain and local mesh
Table 1 Grid number
Primary flow Secondary flow Suction
Part
tube tube chamber
Grid number 4.80105 1.36106
However, those in the boundary and mixing layers,
where a great velocity gradient is expected, are dense.
The meshes used in the commercial code ANSYS
ICEM are all structural hexahedral elements. After the
grid independence tests[17], the final mesh has 1.172
107 elements. The grid number of each part is shown
in Table 1.
According to the requirements of the inertial
subrange and the wall equilibrium stress model, the
grid y + is adjusted around unity in the present paper.
As for the boundary conditions, the two inlets are
set as the velocity inlets and the outlet is set as the free
flow. The rate of the primary flow keeps 10 kg/s
unchanged and the rate of the secondary flow varies to
adjust q . The remained boundaries are walls. Though
the effect of the initial condition on the numerical
results can disappear after a long enough iteration
time, the steady RANS computational results are ado-
pted as the initial flow field for the LES under corres-
ponding operation conditions to reach a steady state in
the statistical significance immediately. The time step
Throat Diffuser Outlet tube
2.4106 2.48106 3.02106 1.98106
is set as 105 s and with 20 iterative times in each time
step to ensure the residual convergence of the con-
tinuity to be reached at 104 s.
The transient-governing equation is discretized
by the FVM, the second-order implicit algorithm is
used for the time integration, the PISO algorithm is
used to deal with the coupling of the velocity field
with the pressure field; the convection term is discre-
tized by the QUICK scheme; the pressure term is
discretized by the PRESTO scheme. The numerical
results of the Smagorinsky sub-grid scale (S-SGS)
model with different coefficients C s and the dyna-
mic sub-grid scale (D-SGS) model are compared with
the experiment results. The error e is defined as
follows
LES  Exp.
e=  100% (5)
Exp.
where LES is the AJP efficiency based on the numeri-
 705

Table 2 The calculation error of SGS models

q S-SGS (Cs = 0.10) D-SGS S-SGS (Cs = 0.20) S-SGS (Cs = 0.25)
0.4 14.8% 12.4% 6.4% 3.3%
0.5 14.2% 12.5% 7.0% 3.5%

cal simulation result and Exp. is the AJP efficiency p x  ps

according to the experiment result. As shown in Table Cp = (6)
1
2, the AJP efficiency obtained by the numerical U p2
2
simulation results is higher than that based on the
experiment results. The result of the S-SGS model where px is the wall pressure, p s is the secondary
with Cs = 0.25 is close to the experiment result, so it flow pressure at the annular nozzle,  is the water
is chosen in the present paper. density and U p is the primary flow velocity at the
The data acquisition time or period is usually mea-
sured by the through-flow time T f and is defined as annular nozzle. Based on the C p distribution, one
the quotient of the computational domain length and sees little difference between the experiment and the
the mean bulk velocity. However, the mean bulk simulation. This coincidence degree is higher for
velocities are different in some parts of the AJP, larger q .
because the sectional areas are different in those parts. The contours of the pressure coefficients (q = 0.4)
The primary study regions include the suction cham- are shown in Fig.4. The pressure coefficient along the
ber, the throat and the diffuser. Thus, T f in the AJP radial direction assumes a uniform distribution.
can be obtained by the sum of the through-flow times
in those three parts. It usually takes 5Tf to 10 T f to
reach a statistical stability and then 5Tf to 100Tf
to finish the data acquisition. However, because the
steady RANS result is considered as the initial flow
field, the time to reach a stability might be shorter.
Therefore, to avoid the effect of the initial condition
on the statistical result, the data acquisition begins
after 5Tf and the collection time is 10 T f .

1.3 Simulation validation

The CFD results are validated against the
experimental data by comparing with the variations of
 and h versus q as shown in Fig.3. The simu-
lated results of   q and h  q curves coincide
well with the experimental data. However, the
experimental performance is a little inferior than the
simulated performance, because the friction loss
caused by the rough wall is ignored in the simulation.
Also, a local loss possibly occurs at the connection of
the throat and the diffuser in the experimental model
pump. The wall pressure coefficient C p is also used
to validate the simulation and it is defined as follows
Fig.3 (Color online) Simulation validation

Fig.4 (Color online) Contours of pressure coefficients

706
Fig.5 (Color online) Distribution of time-averaged axial veloci-
ties in AJP
2. Results and discussions
2.1 Time-averaged flow characteristics
2.1.1 Velocity distribution
After jetting out from the annular nozzle, the
high-speed primary flow runs downstream and
gradually expands toward the axis. The primary and
secondary flows finish mixing at the throat exit or the
diffuser inlet and then the velocity decreases with the
pressure increase in the diffuser. The primary flow re-
mains at a high speed and can reach the maximum.
Figure 4(a) indicates the distribution of the time-
averaged axial velocity U for different q . In this
figure, x/Dt = 0 is the position of the throat inlet,
where x is the axial position. The red arrow points the
annular mixing layer position of the two flows or the
separation position of the recirculation region. The
green arrow indicates the mixing position of the
annular mixing layer and the wall-boundary layer.
Figure 5(a) shows that the time-averaged veloci-
ties at different x/Dt are symmetrically distributed.
For small q ( q = 0.1 and q = 0.2 ), there is a recir-
culation region in the suction chamber and it becomes
more obvious with the decrease of q . Most time-
averaged flow field regions are quite smooth, except
for the recirculation region with an irregular outline,
showing the complexity of the flow in this region.
With the internal flow development, the primary and
secondary flows sufficiently mix together and the
velocity distribution becomes homogeneous gradually.
The primary flow velocity for large q ( q = 0.4 or
0.6) increases firstly and then decreases. Besides, the
wake produced by the thickness of the nozzle is
captured at x/Dt = 1.55 .
The distribution of the dimensionless time-ave-
raged axial velocity U / U p along the radial direction
is shown in Fig.6(a) ( U / U p as the abscissa and
y / R as the ordinate), where U p is the axial velo-
city of the primary flow at the nozzle, y is the radial
position and R is the radius at different axial
positions. Because the axial velocity is in a symmetri-
cal distribution, only the upper half is shown in
Fig.6(a).
For q = 0.2 , the axial velocity of the primary
flow remains unchanged in the region x/Dt  
and then decreases in the throat (0  x/Dt  3) , for
q = 0.6 , the axial velocity of the primary flow
increases in the region x/Dt   , but decreases in
the region x/Dt   , for q = 0.2 , U max gradually
deflects toward the axis in the region x/Dt   , and
for q = 0.6 , Umax gradually deflects toward the axis
in the region x/Dt  1. . Therefore, with the increase
of q , the high-axial velocity region of the primary
flow enlarges and U max increases.
The distribution of the time-averaged radial
velocity for different q is shown in Fig.6(b).
Different from U / U p , V / U p has a non-symmetri-
cal distribution and its value is relatively small (about
one fifth of U / U p ). In the suction chamber, the
absolute value of V / U p is relatively large with a
little variation because of the shrinkage structure. Yet
in the throat, the absolute value of V / U p is
relatively small with a downtrend until the mixed flow

Fig.6 (Color online) Distribution of time-averaged velocities
along radial direction
runs into the diffuser. Due to the diffuser structure,
V / U p changes from a positive value to a negative
value. Except for the recirculation region, the radial
velocities are in the direction of the axis in the suction
chamber and the throat and they increase at the axis
according to the mass conservation. On the contrary,
707
they decrease at the axis in the diffuser where they
move away from the axis. Due to the increase of q ,
V / U p becomes less in the throat, indicating that the
primary flow expands inward more slowly.
2.1.2 Jet expansion
The present paper defines a potential core length
l (the length from the nozzle exit to the endpoint,
where the value of the speed changes into the value at
the nozzle exit again). The endpoints are shown in
Fig.5(b) such as the mixing position of the primary
and secondary flows, the position of the recirculation
separation pointed by a red arrow and the mixing
position of the mixing and boundary layers pointed by
a green arrow. According to this definition, the
primary flow potential core length l p and the secon-
dary flow potential core length ls can be obtained.
Fig.7 Potential core
When the condition of the recirculation operation
is not satisfied, the secondary flow potential core can
expand into the throat or even the diffuser. The speed
increases firstly and then decreases, affected by the
acceleration of the primary flow and the adverse
pressure gradients. Different from the potential core of
the submerged jets, the potential core length of the
primary flow in the AJP increases approximately
linearly with the increase of q (Fig.7).
In the AJP, the primary flow is the wall jet and
the secondary flow is the compound flow. Thereby,
the internal flow in the AJP can be considered as a
confined annular compound wall jet. The trend of the
jet half-width y1/ 2 can be divided into two parts: one
in the suction chamber and another in the throat
(Fig.8(a)). With the development of the internal flow,
y1/ 2 generally increases, showing that the jet expands
708
toward the axis. For different q , y1/ 2 increases
approximately linearly and it grows more rapidly for
smaller q . Different from ym , the relation between
the increase rate of the boundary-layer width and q
seems weaker in the suction chamber. However, the
width of the boundary layer increases and its increase
rate is higher in the throat (Fig.8(b)). Fig.8(c)
illustrates that the increase rate of the jet half-width is
larger than that of the boundary layer, except in the
case of q = 0.1 .
Fig.8 Jet half-width and boundary layer width
2.1.3 Total pressure distribution
For the incompressible fluid without heat
transmission, the energy of the flow comes from the
mechanical energy. According to the Bernoulli equa-
tion, the fluid mechanical energy, denoted by the total
pressure P , consists of the pressure and kinetic ener-
gies, with the potential energy ignored. Because the
kinetic energy at each cross section is mainly the
kinetic energy along the flow direction, P is defined in
the present paper as
1
P = p + U 2 (7)
2
Thereby, the mass-averaged total pressure P is
defined as

 (  P v  n ) dA
P= A
 (8)
 (  v  n ) dA
A
where A is the section area, v is the velocity

vector,  is the fluid density and n is the unit
vector normal to the surface. Moreover, the residual
energy coefficient  is also defined as
Px  Pc
= (9)
P0  Pc
Fig.9 Residual energy coefficients
where the subscript of x is for different axis
positions, and it is 0 at the nozzle exit and c at the
AJP exit. Figure 9 shows the variations of  . There
are some fluctuations in the curves because the kinetic
pressures produced by the radial and circumferential
velocities are not included in P but the conversion
of veloci- ties towards three directions may happen.
Overally,  is in a downtrend with the flow
development downstream. For a small q , the energy
loss mainly happens in the suction chamber
( x/Dt < 0) and even in the recirculation region, 
may be found to be less than 0.  decreases at a
relatively slow rate for a large q . The energy loss
mainly consists of the following four parts: the mixing
loss between the primary and secondary flows, the
wall friction loss, the recirculation loss and the
diffusion loss in the diffuser. Different proportions of
these losses lead to the energy loss diversity for
different q . The recirculation can be avoided under
proper operation conditions. The diffusion loss can be

reduced by setting a reasonable diffusion angle. The
reduced velocity difference between the primary and
secondary flows can decrease the mixing loss. The
wall friction loss cannot be avoided, but can be
decreased by shortening the length of the AJP.
Fig.10 (Color online) Instantaneous axial velocity distribu-
tions (t = 1.0 s)
2.2 Turbulent flow characteristics
2.2.1 Instantaneous velocity distribution
Figure 10(a) shows the distribution of the instan-
taneous axial velocity u . Compared with the distribu-
tion of the time-averaged axial velocity (Fig.5(a)), that
of the instantaneous velocity is more complex and
disorderly. The primary flow sees fluctuation charac-
teristics, with a discontinuous high speed region. An
obvious recirculation region (u  0) can be found in
the suction chamber for small q ( q = 0.1 or 0.2),
where one sees a mixing process of the two flows.
However, this process occurs in the throat without any
recirculation region for larger q . With the increase of
q , the span of the high-speed region (red region)
becomes longer. The wake effect, produced by the
thickness of the nozzle, is captured at the position of
x/Dt = 1.55 (Fig.10(b)). With the flow development,
the boundary of the primary and secondary flows be-
709
comes rough and staggered due to the mixing process.
In the circumferential direction, the primary flow is in
a discrete state and shows a strong 3-D characteristic.
The axial velocity of the primary flow increases from
about 14 m/s at the nozzle exit to about 16 m/s.
Fig.11 (Color online) Instantaneous recirculation regions (u 
0.01 m / s)
The iso-surface of the instantaneous axial
velocity is also used to describe the region of the
instantaneous recirculation and the wake characteri-
stics of the nozzle exit (Fig.11). Significant wake
regions can be found at the nozzle exit and their size
differences are small in different times. However, the
recirculation regions are considerably different. The
region shape and the distribution of the instantaneous
recirculation are irregular and even discontinuous,
especially in case of q = 0.2 . Nevertheless, the
reattachment point of the recirculation region remains
unchanged. The annular structure can be found in
recirculation regions. Its movement, deformation and
fusion are arrowed in Fig.11, showing a significant
periodicity.
2.2.2 Turbulence intensity distribution
The turbulence intensity is an important index to
describe the flow characteristics. Considering the
longitudinal profile and the fact that the time-averaged
radial velocity V and the time-averaged transverse
velocity W can be 0 at the axis, the time-averaged
710

Fig.12 (Color online) Distributions of turbulence intensity

axial velocity U is considered as the scale for the 

wrms
Iz = (12)
intensities of the radial and transverse turbulences to U
compare with the intensity of the axial turbulence.
Based on the flow directions, the turbulence  = (v ) 2 , u rms
where vrms  = ( w) 2
 = (u ) 2 , wrms
intensities are defined as follows:
and U is the axial time-averaged velocity as a scale.
u As shown in Fig.12(a), the axial high-turbulence
I x = rms (10) intensity mainly occurs in the mixing layer and the
U
near-wall regions of the diffuser. At the primary and

vrms secondary flow inlets, I x is about 0.04 and there is a
Iy = (11) small turbulent region ( I x  0.02) in the potential core
U

of the secondary flow for large q (q  0.4) . With the
increase of q , both the potential cores of the primary
and secondary flows increase and this small turbulent
region also expands. For small q , there are large
turbulent regions ( I x  0.02) in the suction chamber.
Due to the recirculation region in the suction chamber,
where the axial velocity is small and the turbulence
velocity is large, I x increases. The rise of q leads
to the disappearance of the recirculation region and
the high I x region moves downstream. In the case of
q = 0.6 , the high I x region moves into the diffuser.
Due to the similarity between I y and I z , the
present study analyzes Iy and its distribution
(Fig.12(b)). For small q (q  0.2) , there are high I y
regions in the suction chamber because of recir-
culation regions, where the axial velocity is small but
the radial turbulent velocity is large. With the increase
of q , the recirculation region disappears. Meanwhile,
the high I y region diminishes and moves into the
diffuser for q = 0.6 . In addition, the high I y at the
diffuser exit drops with the rise of q . Similar to I x ,
a small turbulent region ( I y  0.02) exists in the
potential core of the secondary flow for large
q (q  0.4) . With the increase of q , the lengths of
the primary and secondary flow potential cores
increase and the small turbulent region also expands.
Considering that the axial turbulence intensity is
in the symmetrical distribution, only the upper part of
  U p1 is discussed (Fig.12(c)). There are four
urms
peaks and three valleys. Compared with Fig.5(b), the
peaks are on the boundary and the mixing layers and
the valleys appear in the potential cores of the primary
and secondary flows. With the expansion of the
boundary and mixing layers, the peaks and valleys
gradually move toward the axis. This movement is
shown as a trend of a rise firstly and then of a drop
and the turning point of this trend appears later for
larger q . Peak values in the mixing layer are larger
than those in the boundary layer before fully mixing.
Both peak and valley values decrease with the
increase of q .
  U p1 distribution, merely
Different from the urms
two peaks are in the mixing layer and the valley is in
  U p1 distribution
the axial potential core in the urms
(Fig.12(d)). In addition, there are no obvious peaks or
valleys in the boundary layer or the potential core of
the primary flow. However, the trend of the movement
711
  U p1 is similar to that of
of the peak of urms
  U p1 , indicating that there is a lower peak for
urms
larger q .
2.2.3 Reynolds stress distribution
The Reynolds stress comes from the inhomo-
geneity of the flow field and represents the effect of
the turbulent fluctuation on the time-averaged flow. In
the Reynolds stress, uiu j denotes the correlation
degree of different turbulence velocity components in
the same position, which can be expressed as
 u u  u v u w 
 
uiu j =  vu  vv vw  (13)
 
     
 w u w v w w 
where the components along the diagonal are the
normal stress terms and the others are the shear stress
terms. The bar above each term is omitted for a
succinct expression in the following discussion. U p
is treated as the scale to describe the radial distribution
of the dimensionless shear stress u v   U p2
(Fig.13(a)). Due to the symmetry, there are four peaks
in the boundary and the mixing layers and two valleys
in the potential core of the primary flow in the
u v   U p2 distribution, which is similar to the distri-
  U p1 . With the expansion of the boun-
bution of urms
dary and mixing layers, both peaks and valleys
gradually move toward the axis. This movement is
shown as a trend of a rise firstly and then of a drop.
The turning point of this trend appears later for larger
q . Before fully mixing, the peak value in the mixing
layer is larger than that in the boundary layer. Both the
peak and valley values decrease with the increase of
q.
Shear stress  can be obtained by combining
uv with uw , which is shown as follows
(u v)2 + (u w)2
= (14)
U p2
Annular distribution of  is mainly in the
mixing layer and the recirculation region (Fig.13(b)).
Along the flow direction, the maximum in each
section displays a trend of increase firstly and then of
decrease. For larger q , the distribution of  be-
comes smoother and the region span is larger. For
q = 0.1 ,  intensity gradually decreases and its region
712
Fig.13 (Color online) Reynolds stress distributions
also shrinks after the mixing of the recircu- lation and
large  region in the mixing layer. However, there is
a large  in the wall-boundary layer at the throat
inlet ( x/Dt = 0) and its region gradually expands
with the decrease of its intensity. There is a low-stress
zone (  0) between the mixing layer and the large
 region in the wall-boundary layer. For large q
( q = 0.4, 0.6), the large  region in the mixing layer
gradually expands to a stable state with the drop of the
intensity. However, the  region in the boundary
layer of the throat wall gradually expands, while the
intensity increases at firstly and then decreases. The
shear stress  is close to 0 near the axis, which
indicates a low turbulence correlation of the velocity
near the axis.
2.2.4 Vorticity distribution
The vortex core is a vorticity concentration
region in a vortex. Therefore, numerous scholars use
the vorticity as a tool to identify the vortexes[18-20].
The total vorticity  t , the streamwise vorticity x
and the spanwise vorticity n are defined as
follows[21]:
Dp
t =  x2 +  y2 +  z2 = 
Up
2 2 2
 w v   u w   v u 
   +   +   (15)
 y z   z x   x y 
D p  w v 
x =    (16)
U p  y z 
2
Dp  u w 2  v u 
n =  y2 + z2 =    +  
U p  z x   x y 
(17)
A red and a green arrows point out the lengths of
the potential core ( l p and ls ) in Fig.14(a). The
vorticity mainly distributes in the mixing and wall-
boundary layers as well as the recirculation region,
where the velocity gradients are great. The secondary
flow velocity increases with the rise of q , resulting in
a drop of the velocity gradient between velocities of
the primary and secondary flows. Therefore, the
decreased vorticity intensity leads to an increase of
l p and ls . These two flows evenly mix downstream
with a decrease of the velocity gradient. Thereby, the
vorticity intensity gradually decreases in a sparse
distribution and finally finishes the dissipation.
Mainly produced by the shear flow, the vorticity
intensity near the suction chamber wall is evenly
distributed. Yet the vorticity intensity near the throat
wall, induced by the vortex movement, shows an
obvious fluctuation.
Figure 14(b) shows the instantaneous distribution
of the total vorticity at different times. The mixing
layer near the nozzle exit grows slowly and evenly.
However, with the rise of disturbance, it is gradually
affected by a nonlinear effect until a saturation state is
reached. Then, periodically arrayed vortex structures
 713

appear and their intensity gradually increases in the

same rotation direction. Though the wall-boundary
layers in the suction chamber and the mixing layer are
separated by the primary flow, some periodically
arrayed vortex structures, indirectly compressed by
the vortexes in the mixing layer, also occur in the
boundary layer. They are in the same vortex direction
with those in the mixing layer. The vortex structures
in the mixing and boundary layers gradually grow and
even break. They rapidly integrate and dissipate in the
rear end of the throat and the front end of the diffuser.
Both the potential cores of the primary and secondary
flows are affected by the vortex structures. Due to a
narrow radial space, the primary flow is affected by
the vortex development in the mixing and boundary
layers, shown as a cyclic swing along the radial
direction. When the vortexes in the mixing layer are
combined with those in the boundary layer, the
potential cores disappear. The potential core region of
the secondary flow is wide and has a strong anti-inter-
ference ability. However, it gradually becomes narrow
and its rear end also swings with the erosion of the
vortex structures.

Fig.15 (Color online) Distributions of instantaneous vorticity

( m = 1.72 , t = 1.0 s )

wise vortexes in the boundary layer. Spanwise vorte-

Fig.14 (Color online) Distributions of instantaneous total vortici-
ty ( m = 1.72)
The spanwise vortexes are generated by the
Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. The maximum spanwise
vorticity occurs at the nozzle exit (Fig.15(a)). Intensity
of spanwise vortex gradually decreases and then
disappears out of the boundary layer. However, a
high-velocity gradient results in the existence of span-
xes in the wake increases with the rise of q and
mixes with those in the mixing layer soon. In a short
distance from the nozzle exit, the shape of spanwise
vortexes remains the same with those at the nozzle
exit, shown as an annular shape firstly and then
changing into a complex shape. For q  0.6 , without
recirculation disturbances, spanwise vortexes expand
slowly towards the wall and show a diverse and
complete shape. However, extruded by the wall of
suction chamber, spanwise vortexes form a petal-like
714
shape ( x/Dt = 0.75) and show a strong 3-D charac-
teristics. Intensity of spanwise vortexes decrease.
Their shapes finally break and disappear. For q = 0.1 ,
some spanwise vortexes, with a complex shape and a
disordered distribution, occur in the recirculation
region. These spanwise vortexes mix with those in the
mixing layer in the region of 0.75  x/Dt  0 . Then,
they mix with those in the boundary layer when they
expand toward the wall (1.5  x/Dt ) . For q = 0.2 ,
though the recirculation region is small, spanwise
vortexes twist and break at the nozzle inlet ( x/Dt = 0) .
Therefore, they do not keep an annular shape any
more. However, they can keep an annular shape at the
nozzle inlet for q  0.4 , indicating that the recircu-
lation region strongly affects the shape of spanwise
vortexes.
Similar to the spanwise vortexes, the streamwise
vortexes mainly distribute in the mixing and the
wall-boundary layers as well as the recirculation re-
gion (Fig.15(b)). With the increase of q , the maxi-
mum streamwise vorticity decreases. Due to the azi-
muthal instability, the streamwise vortexes are formed
and always in pairs. Compared with the spanwise
vortexes, both the intensity and the size of the stream-
wise vortexes are smaller at the nozzle. However, the
streamwise vorticity gradually increases and grows in
size. Then it diffuses into the entire flow field from
the mixing layer. When the intensity of the spanwise
vorticity decreases and even disappears, the stream-
wise vorticity intensity remains at a high level.
3. Conclusions
The present paper analyzes the flow characteri-
stics in the AJP from both the time-averaged and turbu-
lent flow characteristics. Conclusions are as follows:
(1) With the increase of q , both the potential
cores of the primary and secondary flows increase
linearly. With the flow development, the jet half-width
gradually increases and the increase rate is higher for
smaller q . In the suction chamber, the increase rate
of the boundary layer width is independent of q . But
in the throat, the boundary layer width becomes
thicker with the increase of q . The increase rate of
the boundary layer is less than that of the jet half-
width. The residual energy coefficient is in a down-
trend with the flow development. The decrease mainly
occurs in the suction chamber for small q and  is
less than 0 in the recirculation region. With the
increase of q ,  decreases at a lower rate. Com-
pared with the distribution of the time-averaged axial
velocity, that of the instantaneous velocity is more
complex and disorderly.
(2) The distributions of I x and I y are similar.
The high intensity of the axial turbulence mainly
occurs in the mixing layer and the near-wall regions of
the diffuser. With the increase of q , both the
potential cores of the primary and secondary flows
increase and the small turbulent region also expands.
However, urms  U p1 is different from vrms
  U p1 . With
the expansion of the boundary and mixing layers, both
  U p1 gradually move
the peaks and valleys of urms
toward the axis. This movement is shown in a trend of
rise firstly and then of drop. The turning point of this
  U p1 dis-
trend appears later for larger q . In the vrms
tribution, there are merely two peaks in the mixing
layer and a valley in the axial potential core.
(3) The annular distribution of  is mainly
found in the mixing layer and the recirculation region.
Along the flow direction, the maximum in each
section sees a trend of increase firstly and then of
decrease. For larger q , the change of  becomes
smoother and its region span is larger. There is a
low-stress zone (  0) between the mixing layer
and the large  region in the wall-boundary layer.
The correlation of the velocity turbulence near the
axis is low.
(4) The intensity of the spanwise vortex is larger
than that of the streamwise vorticity, so the former
makes a greater contribution to the total vorticity.
Both the instantaneous streamwise vortexes and the
instantaneous spanwise vortexes distribute in the
mixing and the wall-boundary layers as well as the
recirculation region. The intensity of the spanwise
vorticity reaches the top value at the nozzle exit and
then sharply decreases with the flow development.
Both of the intensity and the size of the streamwise
vortexes are small at the nozzle exit with a trend of
increase firstly and then of decrease with the flow
development.
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