Free Shear Flows 1: Jets — Lesson 5

Until now, all external flow examples we investigated were based on a solid object immersed in a fluid, like an aircraft or a soccer ball moving through the air. Did you know there is another class of external flow called free shear flow? One example is the jets of smoke emitted from an automobile exhaust.

In this lesson, we will learn about these external jets. We categorize them as plane and round jets, and learn about both laminar and turbulent characteristics of these jet flows. In this lesson, we will also predict the jet width as well as its spreading rates. These parameters are extremely important for designing rocket nozzles and industrial chimneys.

Alternate video link.

Here are the accompanying handout slides for this lesson.