Effect of nozzle thickness on the self-excited impinging planar jet

The self-excited oscillation of a large aspect ratio planar jet impinging on a flat plate is investigated experimentally at a single transonic jet velocity to clarify the effect of varying the jet thickness on pattern of jet oscillation and frequency of resulting acoustic tone. The study has been performed for a series of jet thicknesses, 1 mm to 4 mm, each of which is tested for the complete range of plate position, i.e. impingement distance, over which acoustic tones are generated. The results reveal that the jet oscillation is controlled by a fluid-dynamic mechanism for small impingement distances, where the hydrodynamic flow instability controls the jet oscillation without any coupling with local acoustic resonances. At larger impingement distances, a fluid-resonant mechanism becomes dominant, in which one of the various hydrodynamic modes of the jet couples with one of the resonant acoustic modes occurring between the jet nozzle and the impingement plate. Within the fluid-resonant regime, the acoustic tones are found to be controlled by the impingement distance, which is the length scale of the acoustic mode, with the jet thickness having only minor effects on the tone frequency. Flow visualization images of the jet oscillation pattern at a constant impingement distance show that the oscillation occurs at the same hydrodynamic mode of the jet despite a four-fold increase in its thickness. Finally, a feedback model has been developed to predict the frequency of acoustic tones, and has been found to yield reasonable predictions over the tested range of impingement distance and nozzle thickness.