Computational and experimental analysis of supersonic air ejector: Turbulence modeling and assessment of 3D effects

• Computational and experimental assessment of computational techniques for ejector flows.
• Comparisons to 2D/3D (k–ε, k–ε realizable, k–ω SST, and stress–ω RSM) turbulence models.
• k–ω SST model performs best while ε-based models more accurate at low motive pressures.
• Good on-design agreement across 2D and 3D models; off-design needs 3D simulations.

Numerical and experimental analyses are performed on a supersonic air ejector to evaluate the effectiveness of commonly-used computational techniques when predicting ejector flow characteristics. Three series of experimental curves at different operating conditions are compared with 2D and 3D simulations using RANS, steady, wall-resolved models. Four different turbulence models are tested: k–ε, k–ε realizable, k–ω SST, and the stress–ω Reynolds Stress Model. An extensive analysis is performed to interpret the differences between numerical and experimental results. The results show that while differences between turbulence models are typically small with respect to the prediction of global parameters such as ejector inlet mass flow rates and Mass Entrainment Ratio (MER), the k–ω SST model generally performs best whereas ε-based models are more accurate at low motive pressures. Good agreement is found across all 2D and 3D models at on-design conditions. However, prediction at off-design conditions is only acceptable with 3D models, making 3D simulations mandatory to correctly predict the critical pressure and achieve reasonable results at off-design conditions. This may partly depend on the specific geometry under consideration, which in the present study has a rectangular cross section with low aspect ratio.