Computational Study of the Axisymmetric, Supersonic Ejector-Diffuser Systems

A ejector system is one of the fluid machinery, which has been mainly used as an exhaust pump or a vacuum pump. The ejector system has often been pointed out to have only a limited efficiency because it is driven by pure shear action and the mixing action between primary and secondary streams. In the present work, numerical simulations were conducted to investigate the effects of the geometry and the mass flow ratio of supersonic ejector-diffuser systems on their mixing performance. A fully implicit finite volume scheme was applied to solve the axisymmetric Navier-Stokes equations, and the standard ${\kappa}-{\varepsilon}$ turbulence model was used to close the governing equations. The flow fields of the supersonic ejector-diffuser systems were investigated by changing the ejector throat area ratio and the mass flow ratio. The existence of the second throat strongly affected the shock wave structure inside the mixing tube as well as the spreading of the under-expanded jet discharging from the primary nozzle, and served to enhance the mixing performance.