Wavepacket modulation in shock-containing jets

Abstract

We propose a new approach to predict the modulation of wavepackets in shock-containing jets. With a modelled ideally expanded mean flow as input, an approximation of the shock-cell structure is obtained from the parabolised stability equations (PSE) at zero frequency. This solution is then used to define a new shock-containing mean flow, which is a function of the shock-cell wavenumber at each streamwise station. Linearisation of the Navier-Stokes equations around this quasi-periodic mean flow allows us to postulate a solution based on the Floquet ansatz, and further manipulation of the equations leads to a system called the parabolised Floquet equations (PFE) that bears several similarities to PSE. The modulation wavenumbers are marched spatially together with the central Kelvin-Helmholtz wavenumber, leading to a modulated wavepacket as the final solution. The limitations of PFE are highlighted, and the method is applied to two sample cases: a canonical slowly diverging jet at low supersonic Mach number and an overexpanded jet, for which large-eddy simulation (LES) data is available. Overall, good agreement is observed between the wavepackets predicted by PFE and the leading spectral proper orthogonal decomposition (SPOD) modes from the LES, suggesting that the method is able to capture the underlying physical mechanism associated with wavepacket modulation: the extraction of energy from the mean flow by the Kelvin-Helmholtz mode and a redistribution of energy to modulation wavenumbers due to the interaction with the shock-cell structure.