Performance of turbulence models for flows through rough pipes

The Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations were solved along with turbulence models, namely k–ε, k–ω, Reynolds stress models (RSM), and filtered Navier–Stokes equations along with Large Eddy Simulation (LES) to study the fully-developed turbulent flows in circular pipes roughened by repeated square ribs with various spacings. Solutions of these flows were obtained using the commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software Fluent. The numerical results were validated against experimental measurements and other numerical data published in literature. The performance of the turbulence models was compared and discussed. All the RANS models and LES model were observed to perform equally well in predicting the time-averaged flow statistics. However no instantaneous information can be obtained from the RANS results. Therefore, when a rough overview of the flow process in a pipe roughened by repeated ribs is needed, any one of the RANS models can be of value. On the other hand, the instantaneous as well as time-averaged flows could be studied with more insight using LES, albeit at a cost of CPU effort at least one order higher.     

The effect of modeling of velocity fluctuations on prediction of collection efficiency of cyclone separators

The effect of modeling of velocity fluctuations on the prediction of collection efficiency of cyclone separators has been numerically investigated using the Reynolds stress turbulence model (RSTM) and large eddy simulation (LES). The Eulerian–Lagrangian modeling approach of CFD code Fluent 6.3.26 has been employed to simulate the three dimensional, unsteady turbulent gas–solid flows in a Stairmand high efficiency cyclone. The simulated results have been compared with experimental observations available in the literature. The analysis of results shows that the RSTM and the LES have adequately predicted the mean flow field. Results of the present study demonstrate that the LES has good performance on prediction of fluctuating flow field and collection efficiency for each and every particle size. However, the performance of the RSTM is found poor in terms of prediction of velocity fluctuations and collection efficiency, especially for small particles. This relates to the precessing of the vortex core phenomenon, which is resolved more accurately by LES as compared to the RSTM simulation. The results suggest that the prediction of collection efficiency, especially for small particles is greatly influenced by the simulation of velocity fluctuations in cyclones.     

Numerical discovery and experimental confirmation of vortex ring generation by microramp vortex generator

An implicitly implemented large eddy simulation (ILES), by using the modified fifth order WENO scheme, is applied to study the flow around the microramp vortex generator (MVG) at Mach 2.5 and Re_θ = 5760. A series of new discoveries on the flow around supersonic MVG have been made by the UTA LES team including source of the momentum deficit, inflection points (surface in 3-D), Kelvin–Helmholtz instability and vortex ring generation. Most of the new discoveries, which were made by the UTA LES team and presented in 2009, were confirmed by experiment conducted by the UTA experiment team in 2010. A new 5-pair-vortex-tube model near the MVG is given based on the ILES observation.     

Investigation of physiological pulsatile flow in a model arterial stenosis using large-eddy and direct numerical simulations

Physiological pulsatile flow in a 3D model of arterial stenosis is investigated by using large eddy simulation (LES) technique. The computational domain chosen is a simple channel with a biological type stenosis formed eccentrically on the top wall. The physiological pulsation is generated at the inlet using the first harmonic of the Fourier series of pressure pulse. In LES, the large scale flows are resolved fully while the unresolved subgrid scale (SGS) motions are modelled using a localized dynamic model. Due to the narrowing of artery the pulsatile flow becomes transition-to-turbulent in the downstream region of the stenosis, where a high level of turbulent fluctuations is achieved, and some detailed information about the nature of these fluctuations are revealed through the investigation of the turbulent energy spectra. Transition-to-turbulent of the pulsatile flow in the post stenosis is examined through the various numerical results such as velocity, streamlines, velocity vectors, vortices, wall pressure and shear stresses, turbulent kinetic energy, and pressure gradient. A comparison of the LES results with the coarse DNS are given for the Reynolds number of 2000 in terms of the mean pressure, wall shear stress as well as the turbulent characteristics. The results show that the shear stress at the upper wall is low just prior to the centre of the stenosis, while it is maximum in the throat of the stenosis. But, at the immediate post stenotic region, the wall shear stress takes the oscillating form which is quite harmful to the blood cells and vessels. In addition, the pressure drops at the throat of the stenosis where the re-circulated flow region is created due to the adverse pressure gradient. The maximum turbulent kinetic energy is located at the post stenosis with the presence of the inertial sub-range region of slope −5/3.     

Asymptotic behaviour of commutation errors and the divergence of the Reynolds stress tensor near the wall in the turbulent channel flow

The derivation of the space averaged Navier–Stokes equations for the large eddy simulation (LES) of turbulent incompressible flows introduces two groups of terms which do not depend only on the space averaged flow field variables: the divergence of the Reynolds stress tensor and commutation errors. Whereas the former is studied intensively in the literature, the latter terms are usually neglected. This note studies the asymptotic behaviour of these terms for the turbulent channel flow at a wall in the case that the commutation errors arise from the application of a non‐uniform box filter. To perform analytical calculations, the unknown flow field is modelled by a wall law (Reichardt law and 1/αth power law) for the mean velocity profile and highly oscillating functions model the turbulent fluctuations. The asymptotics show that near the wall, the commutation errors are at least as important as the divergence of the Reynolds stress tensor. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Finite element analysis of laminar and turbulent flows using LES and subgrid-scale models

Numerical simulations of laminar and turbulent flows in a lid driven cavity and over a backward-facing step are presented in this work. The main objectives of this research are to know more about the structure of turbulent flows, to identify their three-dimensional characteristic and to study physical effects due to heat transfer. The filtered Navier–Stokes equations are used to simulate large scales, however they are supplemented by subgrid-scale (SGS) models to simulate the energy transfer from large scales toward subgrid-scales, where this energy will be dissipated by molecular viscosity. Two SGS models are applied: the classical Smagorinsky’s model and the Dynamic model for large eddy simulation (LES). Both models are implemented in a three-dimensional finite element code using linear tetrahedral elements. Qualitative and quantitative aspects of two and three-dimensional flows in a lid-driven cavity and over a backward-facing step, using LES, are analyzed comparing numerical and experimental results obtained by other authors.     

用大涡模拟检验湍流模型

用大涡模拟方法对直方管内充分发展湍流运动的数值模拟，所建立的数据库可以用来检验湍流模型，本文中数据库被用来检验Ｄｅｍｕｒｅｎ和Ｒｏｄｉ文中所讨论的代数模型，并进行了讨论。     

On large Eddy simulation and variational multiscale methods in the numerical simulation of turbulent incompressible flows

Numerical simulation of turbulent flows is one of the great challenges in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). In general, Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) is not feasible due to limited computer resources (performance and memory), and the use of a turbulence model becomes necessary. The paper will discuss several aspects of two approaches of turbulent modeling—Large Eddy Simulation (LES) and Variational Multiscale (VMS) models. Topics which will be addressed are the detailed derivation of these models, the analysis of commutation errors in LES models as well as other results from mathematical analysis.     

Numerical analysis of convection heat transfer from an array of perforated fins using the Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes equations and large-eddy simulation method

Extended surfaces (fins) are frequently used in heat exchange devices to increase the heat transfer between a primary surface and the surrounding fluid. In the present study, we determined the thermal performance of an efficient type of perforated fin and we compared the results with those obtained for a simple solid fin and a flat surface without fins in the same working conditions. The modeled geometry comprised fins that had small channels with a circular cross section and different configurations, which were arranged stream-wise along the fin's length. The turbulent flow field around the perforated fins was modeled using the Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations and large-eddy simulation (LES) method with a suitable subgrid-scale model. The conjugate differential equations for both the solid and gas phases were solved simultaneously using the finite volume procedure with the SIMPLE algorithm. For LES, the flow and heat transfer characteristics were determined for a Reynolds number equal to 3.2×10⁴ based on the fin length and a Prandtl number of 0.71. The results indicated that among the different configurations, the fins with three openings had the best thermo-hydraulic performance. In addition, we found that although the heat transfer rates predicted by RANS and LES were in close agreement, there were noticeable differences in the important flow characteristics, such as the recirculation zone around the fins and the total drag force on them.     

Direct numerical simulation of turbulent non-Newtonian flow using a spectral element method

A spectral element—Fourier method (SEM) for Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) of the turbulent flow of non-Newtonian fluids is described and the particular requirements for non-Newtonian rheology are discussed. The method is implemented in parallel using the MPI message passing kernel, and execution times scale somewhat less than linearly with the number of CPUs, however this is more than compensated by the improved simulation turn around times. The method is applied to the case of turbulent pipe flow, where simulation results for a shear-thinning (power law) fluid are compared to those of a yield stress (Herschel–Bulkley) fluid at the same generalised Reynolds number. It is seen that the yield stress significantly dampens turbulence intensities in the core of the flow where the quasi-laminar flow region there co-exists with a transitional wall zone. An additional simulation of the flow of blood in a channel is undertaken using a Carreau–Yasuda rheology model, and results compared to those of the one-equation Spalart-Allmaras RANS (Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes) model. Agreement between the mean flow velocity profile predictions is seen to be good. Use of a DNS technique to study turbulence in non-Newtonian fluids shows great promise in understanding transition and turbulence in shear thinning, non-Newtonian flows.     

A mixing model providing statistics of the conditional scalar dissipation rate

Joint composition probability density function (PDF) methods are used for the numerical simulation of turbulent reactive flows. Here, other than in classical Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) or large eddy simulation (LES) approaches, the highly non-linear chemical source term appears in closed form. On the other hand, mixing models are required for the closure of the molecular diffusion term. In the present work, the joint statistics of the scalar and the scalar dissipation rate provided by the parameterized scalar profile (PSP) mixing model are validated. The goal is to combine the PDF method with a flamelet approach, where the scalar dissipation rate plays a crucial role in determining the contribution of the chemical source term. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A prediction of the acoustical properties of induction cookers based on an FVM–LES-acoustic analogy method

The FVM–LES-acoustic analogy method (FVM–LES-AAM), which is a hybrid prediction technique for the acoustical property computation, is presented and performed in this paper. The FVM–LES-AAM was developed by combining the finite volume method (FVM), the large eddy simulation (LES), and the Ffowcs Williams-Hawkings analogy algorithm (FWH-AA). To predict the acoustical properties of induction cookers, the FVM is used for discretizing the calculation field and building numerical equations, and the LES and FWH-AA are performed for computing the sound sources and predicting the far-field sound, respectively. Using the FVM with the unstructured grids method to discretize the control equation of Navier–Stokes was introduced for illuminating the above numerical simulation procedure. To prove the FVM–LES-AAM method is feasible for predicting the acoustical property of induction cookers, the simulated results were compared with some measured experimental data. The comparisons suggest that the hybrid method is accurate and reliable for the aeroacoustics analysis of induction cookers. Considering the temperature performance, furthermore, some new configurations for the noise reduction of induction cookers were designed, simulated, and discussed. The FVM–LES-AAM prediction technique shows promise as a feasible and computationally affordable approach for not only noise analysis of induction cookers, but also for other aeroacoustics problems in engineering.     

A high accuracy hybrid method for two-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations

A dual-mesh hybrid numerical method is proposed for high Reynolds and high Rayleigh number flows. The scheme is of high accuracy because of the use of a fourth-order finite-difference scheme for the time-dependent convection and diffusion equations on a non-uniform mesh and a fast Poisson solver DFPS2H based on the HODIE finite-difference scheme and algorithm HFFT [R.A. Boisvert, Fourth order accurate fast direct method for the Helmholtz equation, in: G. Birkhoff, A. Schoenstadt (Eds.), Elliptic Problem Solvers II, Academic Press, Orlando, FL, 1984, pp. 35–44] for the stream function equation on a uniform mesh. To combine the fast Poisson solver DFPS2H and the high-order upwind-biased finite-difference method on the two different meshes, Chebyshev polynomials have been used to transfer the data between the uniform and non-uniform meshes. Because of the adoption of a hybrid grid system, the proposed numerical model can handle the steep spatial gradients of the dependent variables by using very fine resolutions in the boundary layers at reasonable computational cost. The successful simulation of lid-driven cavity flows and differentially heated cavity flows demonstrates that the proposed numerical model is very stable and accurate within the range of applicability of the governing equations.     

A dynamic subgrid-scale model for the large eddy simulation of stratified flow

A new dynamic subgrid-scale (SGS) model, including subgrid turbulent stress and heat flux models for stratified shear flow is proposed by using Yoshizawa’s eddy viscosity model as a base model. Based on our calculated results, the dynamic subgrid-scale model developed here is effective for the large eddy simulation (LES) of stratified turbulent channel flows. The new SGS model is then applied to the large eddy simulation of stratified turbulent channel flow under gravity to investigate the coupled shear and buoyancy effects on the near-wall turbulent statistics and the turbulent heat transfer at different Richardson numbers. The critical Richardson number predicted by the present calculation is in good agreement with the value of theoretical analysis     

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

In the present paper, a new dynamic subgrid-scale (SGS) model of turbulent stress and heat flux for stratified shear flow is proposed. Based on our calculated results of stratified channel flow, the dynamic subgrid-scale model developed in this paper is shown to be effective for large eddy simulation (LES) of stratified turbulent shear flows. The new SGS model is then applied to the LES of the stratified turbulent channel flow to investigate the coupled shear and buoyancy effects on the behavior of turbulent statistics, turbulent heat transfer and flow structures at different Richardson numbers.     

Computational fluid dynamics modelling of gas jets impinging onto liquid pools

Gas jets impinging onto a gas–liquid interface of a liquid pool are studied using computational fluid dynamics modelling, which aims to obtain a better understanding of the behaviour of the gas jets used metallurgical engineering industry. The gas and liquid flows are modelled using the volume of fluid technique. The governing equations are formulated using the density and viscosity of the “gas–liquid mixture”, which are described in terms of the phase volume fraction. Reynolds averaging is applied to yield a set of Reynolds-averaged conservation equations for the mass and momentum, and the k–ε turbulence model. The deformation of the gas–liquid interface is modelled by the pressure jump across the interface via the Young–Laplace equation. The governing equations in the axisymmetric cylindrical coordinates are solved using the commercial CFD code, FLUENT. The computed results are compared with experimental and theoretical data reported in the literature. The CFD modelling allows the simultaneous evaluation of the gas flow field, the free liquid surface and the bulk liquid flow, and provides useful insight to the highly complex, and industrially significant flows in the jetting system.     

High performance computation for DNS/LES

The paper is focused on high-order compact schemes for direct numerical simulation (DNS) and large eddy simulation (LES) for flow separation, transition, tip vortex, and flow control. A discussion is given for several fundamental issues such as high quality grid generation, high-order schemes for curvilinear coordinates, the CFL condition for complex geometry, and high-order weighted compact schemes for shock capturing and shock–vortex interaction. The computation examples include DNS for K-type and H-type transition, DNS for flow separation and transition around an airfoil with attack angle, control of flow separation by using pulsed jets, and LES simulation for a tip vortex behind the juncture of a wing and flat plate. The computation also shows an almost linear growth in efficiency obtained by using multiple processors.     

Non‐linear stability and convection for laminar flows in a porous medium with Brinkman law

The non‐linear stability of plane parallel shear flows in an incompressible homogeneous fluid heated from below and saturating a porous medium is studied by the Lyapunov direct method.In the Oberbeck–Boussinesq–Brinkman (OBB) scheme, if the inertial terms are negligible, as it is widely assumed in literature, we find global non‐linear exponential stability (GNES) independent of the Reynolds number R. However, if these terms are retained, we find a restriction on R (depending on the inertial convective coefficient) both for a homogeneous fluid and a mixture heated and salted from below. In the case of a mixture, when the normalized porosity ε is equal to one, the laminar flows are GNES for small R and for heat Rayleigh numbers less than the critical Rayleigh numbers obtained for the motionless state. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Improving shock-free compressible RANS solvers for LES on unstructured meshes

Standard numerical methods used to solve the Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes equations are known to be too dissipative to carry out large eddy simulations since the artificial dissipation they introduce to stabilize the discretization of the convection term usually interacts strongly with the subgrid scale model. A possible solution is to resort to non-dissipative central schemes. Unfortunately, these schemes are in general unstable. A way to reach stability is to select a central scheme that conserves the discrete kinetic energy. To that purpose, a family of kinetic energy conserving schemes is developed to perform simulations of compressible shock-free flows on unstructured grids. A direct numerical simulation of the flow past a sphere at a Reynolds number of 300 and a large eddy simulation at a Reynolds number of 10,000 are performed to validate the methodology.     

Large eddy simulation of a sheet/cloud cavitation on a NACA0015 hydrofoil

A single fluid model of sheet/cloud cavitation is developed and applied to a NACA0015 hydrofoil. First, a cavity formation model is set up, based on a three-dimensional (3D) non-cavitation model of Navier–Stokes equations with a large eddy simulation (LES) scheme for weakly compressible flows. A fifth-order polynomial curve is adopted to describe the relationship between density coefficient ratio and pressure coefficient when cavitation occurs. The Navier–Stokes equations including cavitation bubble clusters are solved using the finite-volume approach with time-marching scheme, and MacCormack’s explicit-corrector scheme is adopted. Simulations are carried out in a 3D field acting on a hydrofoil NACA0015 at angles of attack 4°, 8° and 20°, with cavitation numbers σ = 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0, Re = 10⁶, and a 360 × 63 × 29 meshing system. We study time-dependent sheet/cloud cavitation structures, caused by the interaction of viscous objects, such as vortices, and cavitation bubbles. At small angles of attack (4°), the sheet cavity is relatively stable just by oscillating in size at the accumulation stage; at 8° it has a tendency to break away from the upper foil section, with the cloud cavitation structure becoming apparent; at 20°, the flow separates fully from the leading edge of the hydrofoil, and the vortex cavitation occurs. Comparisons with other studies, carried out mainly in the context of flow patterns on which prior experiments and simulations were done, demonstrate the power of our model. Overall, it can snapshot the collapse of cloud cavitation, and allow a study of flow patterns and their instabilities, such as “crescent-shaped regions.”