Experimental characterization of rotating flow field in a model vortex burner

Acoustic techniques, high speed filming and LDA were employed to characterize swirling jet flow in a model vortex burner. The isothermal flow conditions studied correspond to Re = 16,000 and swirl number S = 1, resulting in onset of the swirling jet breakdown. The breakdown zone exhibited distinct flow unsteadiness in the form of a precessing vortex core (PVC). Phase-averaged analysis of the LDA data was used to reveal an “instantaneous” flow field spatial distribution and to determine the precessing vortex characteristics. These results were compared against the time mean data to reveal the PVC’s footprint in the time-averaged flow structure. In particular, this approach was shown to provide access to the precessing structure parameters making use of conventional flow field diagnostics.