Abstract
An experimental investigation of the flow field features of a round air jet equipped with a fractal (FG) and a regular (RG) grid insert impinging on a flat surface is carried out by means of 2D-2C Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The results are compared to those for a round jet without any grid (JWT). The test Reynolds number is set to 10, 000. The average flow fields and the turbulent kinetic energy distributions are presented. In particular, the effect of the presence of the fractal grid on the turbulence intensity distribution and on the planar component of the Reynolds stress is analyzed. Some differences between the location of the maximum of the turbulence intensity profile and the data reported in the literature are found. A possible interaction process between the wakes of the grids and the growing shear layer of the jet might be responsible of this discrepancy. A comparison between the flow field and the heat transfer results obtained by the authors in a previous work is also carried out. What is underlined is that both an higher turbulence level and a much stronger axial velocity cause an increment in the heat transfer rate.