This dissertation presents an experimental investigation of the fluid dynamic behavior of rarefied supersonic single and dual jets under vacuum conditions. Such flows are of great importance in semiconductor manufacturing processes and multi-engine pr...
This dissertation presents an experimental investigation of the fluid dynamic behavior of rarefied supersonic single and dual jets under vacuum conditions. Such flows are of great importance in semiconductor manufacturing processes and multi-engine propulsion systems operating at high altitudes, as well as in other advanced industrial applications. However, these flows cannot be described by the conventional continuum based Navier–Stokes equations, and their experimental investigation has been limited due to the extreme flow conditions.
In this study, experiments were conducted using a vacuum chamber designed for extreme flow environments. Nitrogen was employed as the working gas, and acetone was seeded as a tracer for molecular tagging velocimetry (MTV) and laser induced fluorescence (LIF) diagnostics. The chamber pressures (pb) were set to 1, 5, and 10 Torr, corresponding to nozzle pressure ratios (η0) of 265, 53, and 26.5, respectively. The nondimensional nozzle spacing (s/de) was varied as 2, 4, 6, and 8 to investigate the interaction between the two jets. High resolution MTV and LIF images provided quantitative data on the detailed flow structures, including the barrel shock, Mach disk, inflection point, and trailing shock.
Based on previous studies and physical interpretation, a new geometric model for the unique barrel shock structure of extremely under-expanded single jets was proposed. This model was then extended to develop a comprehensive geometric model for the complex shock structure of dual jets. The dual jet model was constructed through a combination of experimentally derived correlations from LIF measurements and physical interpretation. The velocity field revealed strong interactions between the shocks in the near field, laminar spreading downstream of the second Mach disk, and a transition to turbulent spreading in the far field. These findings demonstrate that, unlike continuum flows, rarefied supersonic dual jets exhibit distinct and well-defined shock structures governed by rarefaction effects. In addition, unlike supersonic single jets, they exhibit a distinctive laminar to turbulent transition behavior in the far field, even within the re-laminarization regime. These results provide fundamental insights into the physics of rarefied supersonic jet interactions.
From an industrial perspective, the results of this study offer valuable fundamental data for the design of semiconductor vacuum processes and multi-engine propulsion systems for high altitude vehicles. Furthermore, by directly measuring supersonic jets exceeding 800 m/s in a 1 Torr rarefied environment, this work extends the technological limits of flow diagnostics in extreme environments and enhances the precision of rarefied flow measurements.