Heat transfer characteristics of a turbulent swirl jet issuing from a circular nozzle

Experimental and numerical studies on the flow field and cooling performance of a swirling jet, impinging on a flat surface is presented. A new nozzle that resembles the swirl injector of a liquid propellant rocket engine is used. This study considers different parameters including swirl number(S), Reynolds number(Re), normalised orifice to target spacing (Z/D) and confinement. The performance of various RANS and LES turbulence models is assessed using the data obtained from present experimental studies and that reported in literature. RNG k-ϵ turbulent model is successful in predicting heat transfer in non swirling flow. In the case of swirling flow, LES WALEM(Wall Adapting Local Eddy viscosity Model) predicts the heat transfer better than the other models. The performance of Swirling Impinging Jets(SIJ) and Cylindrical Impinging Jets (CIJ) is compared. At higher Z/D, introduction of swirl results in reduction in heat transfer and this is because of the increased spreading of the jet and reduction in velocity of the jet impinging on the target. Better performance is achieved at lower Z/D when a cylindrical jet is introduced with a small amount of swirl. For Z/D=2 and S=0.2, the peak Nu increases by 10% and average Nu in the stagnation region increases by 6% in comparison to CIJ. The position of the peak Nu moves away from the axis of the jet and there is better uniformity in Nu in the stagnation region. For Z/D=2 swirling flow creates secondary peak(which usually occurs at high Re)even at low Re. At very low Z/D, top wall confinement causes increase in both peak heat transfer and average heat transfer in the stagnation region.