Experimental observations show that the presence of small tabs on the edge of a hot, compressible jet exiting into a slower moving, colder ambient flow can increase the rate of spreading of the jet. This suggests that the rate of mixing of the jet and the ambient fluid is also increased. In order to elucidate the physical mechanism responsible for the increased spreading rate a set of calculations was carried out within the framework of the compressible three dimensional Navier–Stokes equations. A series of grid refinements were made to assess the accuracy of the results. We first simulated the flow without the tabs, obtaining reasonable agreement with experimental measurements of the velocity. We then simulated the flow, without tabs, over a range of values of the convective Mach number in order to determine the dependence of the mixing on this parameter. Simulations with modeled tabs were also carried out. In these calculations the effect of the tabs on the flow was modeled by pairs of counter-rotating vortices. The results of these calculations indeed show that the presence of the tabs increase the spreading rate of the jet. The basic physical mechanism responsible for the enhanced spreading rate is discussed and qualitative comparisons with flow visualizations are made. ©1997 American Institute of Physics.