Experimental Study Of Supersonic Coanda Jet

The Coanda effect is the tendency for a fluid jet to atach itself to an adjacent surface and follow its contour without causing an appreciable flow separation. The jet is pulled onto the surface by the low pressure region which develops as entrainment pumps fluid from the region between the jet and the surface. Then the jet is held to the wall surface by the resulting radial pressure gradient which balance the inertial resistance of the jet to turning. The jet may attach to the surface and may be deflected through more than 180 dog, when the radius of the Coanda surface is sufficiently large compared to the height of the exhaust nozzle. However, if the radius of curvature is small, the jet turns through a smaller angle, or may not attach to the surface at all. In general, the limitations in size and weight of a device will limit the radius of the deflection surface. Thus much effort has been paid to improve the jet deflection in a variety of engineering fields. The Coanda effect has long been applied to improve aerodynamic characteristics, such as the drag/lift ratio of flight body, the engine exhaust plume thrust vectoring, and the aerofoil/wing circulation control. During the energy crisis of the seventies, the Coanda jet was applied to reduce vehicle drag and led to drag reductions of as much as about 30% for a trailer configuration. Recently a variety of industrial applications are exploiting another characteristics of the Coanda jets, mainly the enhanced turbulence levels and entrainment compared with conventional jet flows. Various industrial burners and combustors are based upon this principle. If the curvature of the Coanda surface is too great or the operating pressure too high, the jet flow will break away completely from the surface. This could have catastrophic consequences for a burner or combustor. Detailed understanding of the Coanda jet flow is essential to refine the design to maximize the enhanced entrainment in these applications.