Numerical simulation of fountain formation due to normal and inclined twin-jet impingement on ground

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to study numerically the flow physics of a fountain formed by twin-jet impingement on ground. The incompressible Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations with realizable k-ε and WA (Wray-Agarwal) turbulence model are employed in the numerical simulations with ANSYS Fluent. A series of numerical simulations for straight and inclined fountain formations are conducted by changing the geometric and flow parameters of twin jets and distance between them. The changes in parameters include variations in the jet Reynolds number from 2 × 104 to 8 × 104, impingement height, distance between the centerlines of the two jets from 1.4D to 16D where D is the jet diameter, and ratio of the Reynolds number of the two jets from 1 to 4. It is shown that different Reynolds numbers of the two jets can result in a fountain that inclines towards the jet with smaller Reynolds number. Detailed flow field simulations for a large number of cases are presented, and the flow physics of fountain formation is analyzed for the first time in the literature.