Abstract
Jets in crossflow are a recurring flow configuration in many engineering applications and have been the subject of many computational and experimental investigations. While these studies have identified the jet-to-crossflow velocity ratio $R$ as a critical parameter for the global stability and mixing behaviour which ultimately leads to breakdown into turbulence, a far less studied, but equally determining, factor is the presence of chemical reactions. Understanding and quantifying the nature of intrinsic instabilities in reacting and non-reacting flows and their dependence on the governing flow parameters are paramount to devising optimal designs or effective control strategies. In this study, we concentrate on the effect of reactions on the flow behaviour and extract optimal forcing and response functions for a range of driving frequencies, juxtaposing the reactive and non-reactive configurations. Simulations are performed using a compressible framework with a free-stream Mach number of $0.2$, and a constant jet-to-crossflow ratio of three. The flow configuration is kept identical for the reactive and non-reactive cases in order to isolate the effect of combustion on the resulting optimal forcing and response solutions. The frequency response is extracted using an adjoint-based optimization formalism. The presence of reactions markedly impacts the dominant frequencies of the flow. The inert case shows forcing and response modes, whose support aligns with the shear layer – as would be expected from a globally unstable jet. However, the analogous forcing functions for the reactive case concentrate around the flame, in accordance with combustion instabilities.