Computational Fluid Dynamic Modelling of High Aspect Ratio Cross-Sectional Jets I: The Effect of Orifice Shape on Jet Behaviour

High aspect ratio cross-sectional jets (HAR jets) are significant for many industrial applications including offshore hydrocarbon production safety, manufacturing processes, aeronautics and others. Little interest has been paid to such jets as the common belief was that within an acceptable distance from the jet orifice the behaviour emulates that of an axisymmetric jet. Previous experimental and preliminary numerical work [1–4] has shown that this is not necessarily correct. Work has been done to investigate numerically the effect the orifice shape has on the behaviour of the jets. This will be in terms of the curvature of the orifice in comparison to the same aspect ratio with a straight rectangular shape. Simulations have been carried out relating to experimental work [1] as comparison and verification. The spreading of the jet will be assessed as it can have significance in terms of safety, performance and effectiveness. This work enhances previous work [3] and allows an assessment of whether such a curvature in the inlet significantly effects the jet behaviour for two pipe pressures. The choice of turbulence model will also be assessed in terms of the standard two-equation k-ε model and it’s variants the RNG and Realisable models. Later work will investigate the use of Large Eddy Simulation within the context of the geometry used here. This important information will allow for greater understanding for the modelling of such jets in a CFD simulation within a complex industrial problem such as gas dispersion with a hydrocarbon production area. It is realized that the fluid does not emerge as a single velocity from the pipe into the flange and hence to form the inlet for the jet. Therefore the effect of the flow within the pipe and how this effects the emerging jet behaviour is investigated in part II of this paper [5].