An improved dynamic subgrid-scale model and its application to large eddy simulation of rotating channel flows

Rotating turbulence occurs extensively in nature and engineering circumstances. Meanwhile, understanding physical mechanisms of the rotating turbulence is important to the fundamental research of turbulence. The turbulent flow in rotating frames undergoes two kinds of Coriolis force effects. First, a secondary flow is induced in the case that there is a mean vorticity component perpendicular to the rotating axis. Second, there are augmenting or suppressing effects on the turbulence if there i…     

Large eddy simulation of city micro-atmospheric environment

Air quality is one of the important conditions for a better residence life in the populated urban area and it is closed related to the micro-atmospheric environment. Atmospheric environment is controlled by air motion with multi-scales in the city, while air flows in the residence area are of micro-scale atmospheric motion. This paper introduces a modern numerical simulation method, i.e. large eddy simulation (LES), for studying micro-atmospheric flows in the city residence area. For the complex flow features in the residence area, the proper application of LES is studied and various numerical methods are compared in order to investigate their effects on the prediction accuracy of micro-atmospheric flows, for instance, roughness elements and immersed boundary method for complex terrain, different subgrid models and so on. The wind field (including turbulence properties) and contaminant dispersion are computed by the proposed method for a model and a realistic residence area, and the numerical results are in good agreement with the experimental measurements. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 10572073) and Foundation for Development of Science and Technology in Macao (Grant No. 022/2006/A)     

Constrained large-eddy simulation of separated flow in a channel with streamwise-periodic constrictions

Constrained large-eddy simulation (CLES) method has been recently developed by Chen and his colleagues for simulating attached and detached wall-bounded turbulent flows. In CLES, the whole domain is simulated using large-eddy simulation (LES) while a Reynolds stress constraint is enforced on the subgrid-scale (SGS) stress model for near wall regions. In this paper, CLES is used to simulate the separated flow in a channel with streamwise-periodic constrictions at Re = 10,595. The results of CLES are compared with those of Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) method, LES, detached eddy simulation (DES) and previous LES results by Breuer et al. and Ziefle et al. Although a coarse grid is used, our results from the present LES, DES and CLES do not show large deviations from the reference results using much finer grid resolution. The comparison also shows that CLES performs the best among different turbulence models tested, demonstrating that the CLES provides an excellent alternative model for separated flows. Furthermore, the cross-comparisons among different CLES implementations have been carried out. Our simulation results are in favor of using the constraint from algebraic RANS model or solving the RANS model equations in the whole domain with a length scale modification according to the idea from DES.     

Large eddy simulation of compressible turbulent channel flow with spanwise wall oscillation

The influences of the modification of turbulent coherent structures on temperature field and heat transfer in turbulent channel flow are studied using large eddy simulation (LES) of compressible turbulent channel flows with spanwise wall oscillation (SWO). The reliability of the LES on such problems is proved by the comparisons of the drag reduction data with those of other researches. The high consistency of coherent velocity structures and temperature structures is found based on the analyses of the turbulent flow field. When the coherent velocity structures are suppressed, the transportations of momentum and heat are reduced simultaneously, demonstrating the same trend. This shows that the turbulent coherent structures have the same effects on the transportations of momentum and heat. The averaged wall heat flux can be reduced with appropriate oscillating parameters. Supported by the Key Subjects of National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 10732090), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 50476004), and the 111 Project (Grant No. B08009)     

Evaluating the modulated gradient model in large eddy simulation of channel flow with OpenFOAM

Recently, a new family of subgrid-scale (SGS) models, termed as gradient-based models, has been introduced to calculate the SGS stresses in large eddy simulation (LES). In the present work, the modulated gradient model (MGM) was implemented in the OpenFOAM package, and the pimpleFoam solver was improved to be adopted with non-eddy viscosity models. The MGM is a new, nonlinear model that uses the local equilibrium hypothesis to assess the SGS kinetic energy and the velocity gradient tensor to calculate the relative weight of the different components of the SGS stress tensor. To evaluate the accuracy of the MGM along with the modified pimpleFoam solver, a turbulent channel flow was simulated at the three different frictional Reynolds numbers of 180, 395 and 590. Furthermore, the results were compared with direct numerical simulation data, as well as the numerical results obtained by the established SGS models such as the dynamic Smagorinsky model (DSM). A suitable accuracy for the first- and second-order turbulence parameters was reported. Moreover, it was demonstrated that MGM is computationally efficient compared to the DSM in treating channel flow.     

Grid and subgrid-scale interactions in viscoelastic turbulent flow and implications for modelling

Using direct numerical simulations of turbulent plane channel flow of homogeneous polymer solutions, described by the Finitely Extensible Nonlinear Elastic-Peterlin (FENE-P) rheological constitutive model, a-priori analyses of the filtered momentum and FENE-P constitutive equations are performed. The influence of the polymer additives on the subgrid-scale (SGS) energy is evaluated by comparing the Newtonian and the viscoelastic flows, and a severe suppression of SGS stresses and energy is observed in the viscoelastic flow. All the terms of the transport equation of the SGS kinetic energy for FENE-P fluids are analysed, and an approximated version of this equation for use in future large eddy simulation closures is suggested. The terms responsible for kinetic energy transfer between grid-scale (GS) and SGS energy (split into forward/backward energy transfer) are evaluated in the presence of polymers. It is observed that the probability and intensity of forward scatter events tend to decrease in the presence of polymers.     

Large eddy simulation of stably stratified turbulence

Stable stratification turbulence, as a common phenomenon in atmospheric and oceanic flows, is an important mechanism for numerical prediction of such flows. In this paper the large eddy simulation is utilized for investigating stable stratification turbulence numerically. The paper is expected to provide correct statistical results in agreement with those measured in the atmosphere or ocean. The fully developed turbulence is obtained in the stable stratification fluid by large eddy simulation with different...     

Large eddy simulation of the low temperature ignition and combustion processes on spray flame with the linear eddy model

Large eddy simulation coupled with the linear eddy model (LEM) is employed for the simulation of n-heptane spray flames to investigate the low temperature ignition and combustion process in a constant-volume combustion vessel under diesel-engine relevant conditions. Parametric studies are performed to give a comprehensive understanding of the ignition processes. The non-reacting case is firstly carried out to validate the present model by comparing the predicted results with the experimental data from the Engine Combustion Network (ECN). Good agreements are observed in terms of liquid and vapour penetration length, as well as the mixture fraction distributions at different times and different axial locations. For the reacting cases, the flame index was introduced to distinguish between the premixed and non-premixed combustion. A reaction region (RR) parameter is used to investigate the ignition and combustion characteristics, and to distinguish the different combustion stages. Results show that the two-stage combustion process can be identified in spray flames, and different ignition positions in the mixture fraction versus RR space are well described at low and high initial ambient temperatures. At an initial condition of 850 K, the first-stage ignition is initiated at the fuel-lean region, followed by the reactions in fuel-rich regions. Then high-temperature reaction occurs mainly at the places with mixture concentration around stoichiometric mixture fraction. While at an initial temperature of 1000 K, the first-stage ignition occurs at the fuel-rich region first, then it moves towards fuel-richer region. Afterwards, the high-temperature reactions move back to the stoichiometric mixture fraction region. For all of the initial temperatures considered, high-temperature ignition kernels are initiated at the regions richer than stoichiometric mixture fraction. By increasing the initial ambient temperature, the high-temperature ignition kernels move towards richer mixture regions. And after the spray flames gets quasi-steady, most heat is released at the stoichiometric mixture fraction regions. In addition, combustion mode analysis based on key intermediate species illustrates three-mode combustion processes in diesel spray flames.     

Large eddy simulation of a shocked gas cylinder instability induced turbulence

The Navier-Stokes equations for compressible fluid are solved with the operator splitting technique and LES (large eddy simulation) with the Smagorinsky model. A computational code MVFT (multi-viscosity-fluid and turbulence) is developed to study hydrodynamic instability and the induced turbulent mixing for multi compressible fluid. In order to validate the code MVFT,the LANL's shock tube experiment of shocked SF6 gas cylinder is simulated with the initial state of SF6 gas cylinder described by dissipative ...     

Multi-scale properties of large eddy simulations: correlations between resolved-scale velocity-field increments and subgrid-scale quantities

We provide analytical and numerical results concerning multi-scale correlations between the resolved velocity field and the subgrid-scale (SGS) stress-tensor in large eddy simulations (LES). Following previous studies for Navier–Stokes equations, we derive the exact hierarchy of LES equations governing the spatio-temporal evolution of velocity structure functions of any order. The aim is to assess the influence of the subgrid model on the inertial range intermittency. We provide a series of predictions, within the multifractal theory, for the scaling of correlation involving the SGS stress and we compare them against numerical results from high-resolution Smagorinsky LES and from a-priori filtered data generated from direct numerical simulations (DNS). We find that LES data generally agree very well with filtered DNS results and with the multifractal prediction for all leading terms in the balance equations. Discrepancies are measured for some of the sub-leading terms involving cross-correlation between resolved velocity increments and the SGS tensor or the SGS energy transfer, suggesting that there must be room to improve the SGS modelisation to further extend the inertial range properties for any fixed LES resolution.     

A Web services accessible database of turbulent channel flow and its use for testing a new integral wall model for LES

The output from a direct numerical simulation (DNS) of turbulent channel flow at Re_τ ≈ 1000 is used to construct a publicly and Web services accessible, spatio-temporal database for this flow. The simulated channel has a size of 8πh × 2h × 3πh, where h is the channel half-height. Data are stored at 2048 × 512 × 1536 spatial grid points for a total of 4000 time samples every 5 time steps of the DNS. These cover an entire channel flow-through time, i.e. the time it takes to traverse the entire channel length 8πh at the mean velocity of the bulk flow. Users can access the database through an interface that is based on the Web services model and perform numerical experiments on the slightly over 100 terabytes (TB) DNS data on their remote platforms, such as laptops or local desktops. Additional technical details about the pressure calculation, database interpolation, and differentiation tools are provided in several appendices. As a sample application of the channel flow database, we use it to conduct an a-priori test of a recently introduced integral wall model for large eddy simulation of wall-bounded turbulent flow. The results are compared with those of the equilibrium wall model, showing the strengths of the integral wall model as compared to the equilibrium model.     

Large eddy simulation of a turbulent spray jet generated by high-pressure injection: impact of the in-nozzle flow

The turbulence properties of a gas spray jet generated through the injection of a high-pressure atomising spray were studied in the context of the Euler–Lagrange formulation using a large eddy simulation (LES) approach. The study's main aim was to investigate nozzle flow effects on flow and turbulence statistics for a two-phase jet flow in the near and far fields of the spray. The study investigated the injection of an existing in-nozzle flow at the spray inlet. Simulation results were compared with measurements obtained for non-evaporating sprays under quasi-steady conditions, which, in practice, correspond to a long-duration injection. Both simulated high-injection pressure cases showed a good agreement with experimental data. A two-stage evolution of the spray was observed. The flow of the gas jet first developed along the spray cone, followed by the appearance of highly vortical structures around and within the spray. Cavitation in the nozzle flow resulted in an observed asymmetry of the generated gas spray jet: on the gas spray jet side of the nozzle (relative to the cavitation side), stronger jet spreading occurred, and droplets were smaller and slower. The spray jet typically exhibited an ellipsoidal cross-sectional shape. The paper provides a characterisation of the asymmetry that persisted for the duration of the spray evolution (at least for the distances considered here).     

Large eddy simulation of turbulent horizontal buoyant jets

Large eddy simulations (LESs) of turbulent horizontal buoyant jets are carried out using a high-order numerical method and Sigma subgrid-scale (SGS) eddy-viscosity model, for a number of different Reynolds (Re) and Richardson (Ri) numbers. Simulations at previous experimental flow conditions (Re = 3200, 24, 000 and Ri = 0, 0.01) are carried out first, and the results are found to be qualitatively and quantitatively similar to the experimental results, thus validating the numerical methodology. The effect of varying Ri (values 2×10^?4, 0.001, 0.005, and 0.01) and Re (3200 and 24, 000) is studied next. The presence of stable stratification on one side and unstable stratification on the other side of the jet centreline leads to an asymmetric development of horizontal buoyant jets. It is found that this asymmetry, the total radial spread and the vertical deflection are significantly affected by Ri, while Re affects only the radial asymmetry. The need for developing improved integral models, accounting for this asymmetry, is pointed out. Turbulent production and dissipation rates are investigated, and are found to be symmetric in the horizontal plane, but asymmetric in the mid-vertical plane. A previously proposed model, for correlation between the vertical component of the fluctuating scalar flux vector and the vertical cross-correlation component of the Reynolds tensor, is modified based on the current LES results. Instantaneous scalar and velocity fields are analysed to reveal the structure of horizontal buoyant jets. Similar to the developed turbulent jet, the flow close to the nozzle too is found to be markedly different in the stable and unstable stratification regions. Persistent coherent vortex rings are found in the stable stratification region, while intermittent breakdown of vortex rings into small-scale structures is observed in the unstable stratification region. Similarities and differences between the flow structures in the horizontal buoyant jet configuration and those in the jet in crossflow configuration are discussed. Finally, a dynamic mode decomposition analysis is carried out, which indicates that the flow in the unstable stratification region is more energetic and prone to instabilities, as compared to the flow in the stable stratification region.     

Periodic Filtering as a subgrid-scale model for LES of laminar separation bubble flows

Laminar separation bubbles develop over many blades and airfoils at moderate angles of attack and Reynolds numbers ranging from 10⁴ to 10⁵. More accurate simulation tools are necessary to enable higher fidelity design optimisation for these airfoils and blades as well as to test flow control schemes. Following previous investigators, an equivalent problem is formulated by imposing suitable boundary conditions for flow over a flat plate which allows to use a high accuracy spectral solver. Large eddy simulation (LES) of such a flow were performed at drastically reduced resolution to assess the accuracy of several LES modelling approaches: the explicit dynamic Smagorinsky model, implicit LES, and the truncated Navier–Stokes approach (TNS). To mimic dissipation that occurs in implicit LES, the solution on a coarse mesh is filtered at every time step and two different filter strengths are used. In the TNS approach, the solution is filtered periodically, every few hundred time steps. The performance of each approach is evaluated against benchmark direct numerical simulation (DNS) data focusing on pressure and skin friction distributions, which are critical to airfoil designers. TNS results confirm that periodic filtering can act as an apt substitute for explicit subgrid-scale models, whereas filtering at every time step demonstrates the dependence of implicit LES on details of numerics.     

On the effect of an anisotropy-resolving subgrid-scale model on large eddy simulation predictions of turbulent open channel flow with wall roughness

A large eddy simulation (LES) was conducted of turbulent flow in a channel with a rough wall on one side and a free surface on the other by adopting an anisotropy-resolving subgrid-scale (SGS) model. A shear Reynolds number of Re_τ = 395 was used based on the mean friction velocity and channel height. To investigate the grid dependency of the LES results caused by the SGS model, three grid resolutions were tested under the same definition of a roughness shape by using the immersed boundary method. The results obtained were compared with direct numerical simulation data with and without the wall roughness and those without the extra anisotropic term. The primary focus was on how the present anisotropic SGS model with coarser grid resolutions can properly provide the effects of roughness on the mean velocity and turbulent stresses, leading to a considerable reduction of the computational cost of LES.     

Proposed stochastic parameterisations of subgrid turbulence in large eddy simulations of turbulent channel flow

Stochastic and deterministic subgrid parameterisations are developed for the large eddy simulation (LES) of a turbulent channel flow with friction-velocity-based Reynolds number of Re_τ = 950 and centreline-based Reynolds number of Re₀ = 20,580. The subgrid model coefficients (eddy viscosities) are determined from the statistics of truncated reference direct numerical simulations (DNSs). The stochastic subgrid model consists of a mean-field shift, a drain eddy viscosity acting on the resolved field and a stochastic backscatter force of variance proportional to the backscatter eddy viscosity. The deterministic variant consists of a net eddy viscosity acting on the resolved field, which represents the net effect of the drain and backscatter. LES adopting the stochastic and deterministic models is shown to reproduce the time-averaged kinetic energy spectra of the DNS within the resolved scales.     

A priori evaluation of large eddy simulation subgrid-scale scalar flux models in isotropic passive-scalar and anisotropic buoyancy-driven homogeneous turbulence

Direct numerical simulation (DNS) of passive (non-buoyant) and active (buoyant) scalar homogeneous turbulence is carried out using a standard pseudo-spectral numerical method. The flow settings simulated include stationary forced and decaying passive-scalar turbulence, as well as decaying anisotropic active-scalar turbulence. The Schmidt number is unity in all cases. The results are compared with, and are found to be in very good agreement with, previous similar DNS studies. The well-validated DNS data are divided into 19 sets, and are employed to study different large eddy simulation (LES) subgrid-scale (SGS) models for the SGS scalar flux. The models examined include three eddy-viscosity-type models (Smagorinsky, Vreman and Sigma with a constant SGS Schmidt number), a Dynamic Structure model and two versions of the Gradient (Gradient and Modulated Gradient) model. The models are investigated with respect to their ability to predict the orientation, and the magnitude, of the SGS scalar flux. Eddy-viscosity models are found to predict the magnitude of the SGS scalar flux accurately, but are poor at predicting the orientation of the SGS scalar flux. The Dynamic Structure and Gradient models are better than eddy-viscosity models at predicting both the magnitude and direction. However, neither of them can be realised in an actual LES, without carrying additional transport equations. Based on these observations, four new models are proposed – combining directions from Dynamic Structure and Gradient models, and magnitudes from Smagorinsky and Vreman eddy-viscosity models. These models are expected to be better than eddy-viscosity and Modulated Gradient models, and this is confirmed by preliminary a posteriori tests.     

A restricted nonlinear large eddy simulation model for high Reynolds number flows

Recent numerical studies of the restricted nonlinear (RNL) model have demonstrated its ability to reproduce important features of wall turbulence despite a severe reduction in the number of degrees of freedom. In these prior studies, the RNL model included full resolution of the viscous term. In this work, we extend the RNL model to arbitrarily high Reynolds numbers by developing a RNL large eddy simulation (LES) framework along with a method to systematically identify an appropriate streamwise wavenumber support based on spectral properties of wall turbulence. This method leads to a band-limited RNL–LES system which is successful in reproducing some of the most important statistical features captured in previous low to moderate Reynolds number simulations, e.g. the mean velocity and second-order moment profiles. The RNL–LES framework offers a new approach to understanding the connection between coherent structures and the momentum transfer mechanisms of wall turbulence at arbitrarily high Reynolds numbers, where resolution of the viscous terms can become computationally expensive even with the relatively low computational complexity afforded through the dynamical restriction of the RNL model.     

圆形射流湍流场的大涡模拟研究

使用发展的大涡模拟并行程序,数值模拟了圆形射流湍流场,与实验值进行详细比较,对大涡模拟程序进行检验,并分析网格尺度对计算结果的影响。结果表明,大涡模拟计算的平均速度场和雷诺应力场与实验值符合得非常好,验证了该大涡模拟计算程序的可靠性和精确度。同时发现一阶统计矩受网格尺度影响不大,二阶及高阶矩与网格尺度有较大的关系,因此使用大涡模拟方法计算湍流及湍流燃烧问题应对网格依赖性进行必要分析,至少保证二阶统计矩具有较好的精度。     

化学氧碘激光器内流场亚跨超音速混合的大涡模拟研究

 利用大涡模拟对化学氧碘激光器内的亚跨超音速混合过程进行模拟分析,其结果表明了大涡模拟对这种低压、低密度、亚跨超音速及夹杂多种介质的化学流场的可执行性。与传统的雷诺平均仿真结果相比较,大涡模拟能掌握更多的流场细节数据,能够对混合过程进行精准地判断和分析。在此基础上,提出了碘流反向45°入流的设计方案以增强混合程度,计算表明采用此种方案在相应出光面上平均小信号增益系数提高了5%。