Experimental investigation on a cavity-step-actuated supersonic oscillating jet

Wind tunnel testing is conducted at different back pressures in a vacuum-type wind tunnel for a novel supersonic fluidic oscillator which consists of a two-dimensional Laval nozzle, a rectangular cavity and a backward step, to obtain its characteristics and the conditions for jet oscillating. The experimental results show that periodic asymmetrical flipping of the supersonic jet appears over certain nozzle pressure ratio (NPR) range according to schlieren visualization and pressure fluctuations. The jet flipping appears only when the jet is over expanded. The normalized average amplitude of the lateral pressure difference acting on the roofs of the cavity and the step varies around 0.2 while the periodic flipping appears. The supersonic jet periodic flipping frequencies obtained from the experiments agree well with those from the modified Rossiter mode for cavity-step acoustic resonance, but further investigations are needed to discover the underlying mechanism for the jet flipping.