  In order to optimize the performance of gas-jet targets for future nuclear
reaction measurements, a detailed understanding of the dependence of the
gas-jet properties on experiment design parameters is required. Common methods
of gas-jet characterization rely on measuring the effective thickness using
nuclear elastic scattering and energy loss techniques; however, these tests are
time intensive and limit the range of design modifications which can be
explored to improve the properties of the jet as a nuclear reaction target.
Thus, a more rapid jet-characterization method is desired. We performed the
first steps towards characterizing the gas-jet density distribution of the
HIPPO gas-jet target at the University of Notre Dame's Nuclear Science
Laboratory by reproducing results from
$^{20}\rm{Ne}(\alpha,\alpha)^{20}\rm{Ne}$ elastic scattering measurements with
computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations performed with the
state-of-the-art CFD software ANSYS Fluent. We find a strong sensitivity to
experimental design parameters of the gas-jet target, such as the jet nozzle
geometry and ambient pressure of the target chamber. We argue that improved
predictive power will require moving to three-dimensional simulations and
additional benchmarking with experimental data.
