On the performance of WENO/TENO schemes to resolve turbulence in DNS/LES of high‐speed compressible flows

High‐speed compressible turbulent flows typically contain discontinuities and have been widely modeled using Weighted Essentially Non‐Oscillatory (WENO) schemes due to their high‐order accuracy and sharp shock capturing capability. However, such schemes may damp the small scales of turbulence and result in inaccurate solutions in the context of turbulence‐resolving simulations. In this connection, the recently developed Targeted Essentially Non‐Oscillatory (TENO) schemes, including adaptive variants, may offer significant improvements. The present study aims to quantify the potential of these new schemes for a fully turbulent supersonic flow. Specifically, DNS of a compressible turbulent channel flow with M = 1.5 and Re_τ = 222 is conducted using OpenSBLI, a high‐order finite difference computational fluid dynamics framework. This flow configuration is chosen to decouple the effect of flow discontinuities and turbulence and focus on the capability of the aforementioned high‐order schemes to resolve turbulent structures. The effect of the spatial resolution in different directions and coarse grid implicit LES are also evaluated against the WALE LES model. The TENO schemes are found to exhibit significant performance improvements over the WENO schemes in terms of the accuracy of the statistics and the resolution of the three‐dimensional vortical structures. The sixth‐order adaptive TENO scheme is found to produce comparable results to those obtained with nondissipative fourth‐ and sixth‐order central schemes and reference data obtained with spectral methods. Although the most computationally expensive scheme, it is shown that this adaptive scheme can produce satisfactory results if used as an implicit LES model.     

The compressible mixing layer: an LES study

This article employs LES to simulate temporal mixing layers with Mach numbers ranging from M _c  = 0.3 to M _c  = 1.2. A form of approximate deconvolution together with a dynamic Smagorinsky subgrid model are employed as subgrid models. A large computational domain is used along with relatively good resolution. The LES results regarding growth rate, turbulence levels, turbulence anisotropy, and pressure–strain correlation show excellent agreement with those available from previous experimental and DNS results of the same flow configuration, underlining the effectiveness and accuracy of properly conducted LES. Coherent structures during the transitional stage change from spanwise aligned rollers to streamwise-aligned thinner vortices at high Mach number. In the quasi-self-similar turbulent stage, the resolved-scale vorticity is more isotropic at higher M _c , and its vertical correlation length scale is smaller. The ratio of the vertical integral length scale of streamwise velocity fluctuation to a characteristic isotropic estimate is found to decrease with increasing M _c . Thus, compressibility leads to increased spatial decorrelation of turbulence which is one reason for the reduction in pressure–strain correlation with increasing M _c . The balance of the resolved-scale fluctuating vorticity is examined, and it is observed that the linear production by mean shear becomes less important compared to nonlinear vortex stretching at high M _c . A spectral decomposition of the pressure fluctuations into low- and intermediate-to-high-wave numbers is performed. The low-wave number part of the pressure field is found not to correlate with the strain field, although it does have a significant contribution to the r.m.s of the fluctuating pressure. As a consequence, the pressure–strain correlation can be analyzed using a simplified Green’s function for the Poisson equation as is demonstrated here using the LES data.     

Implicit LES of free and wall‐bounded turbulent flows based on the discontinuous Galerkin/symmetric interior penalty method

This paper presents the second validation step of a compressible discontinuous Galerkin solver with symmetric interior penalty (DGM/SIP) for the direct numerical simulation (DNS) and the large eddy simulation (LES) of complex flows. The method has already been successfully validated for DNS of an academic flow and has been applied to flows around complex geometries (e.g. airfoils and turbomachinery blades). During these studies, the advantages of the dissipation properties of the method have been highlighted, showing a natural tendency to dissipate only the under‐resolved scales (i.e the smallest scales present on the mesh), leaving the larger scales unaffected. This phenomenon is further enhanced as the polynomial order is increased. Indeed, the order increases the dissipation at the largest wave numbers, while its range of impact is reduced. These properties are spectrally compatible with a subgrid‐scale model, and hence DGM may be well suited to be used for an implicit LES (ILES) approach. A validation of this DGM/ILES approach is here investigated on canonical flows, allowing to study the impact of the discretisation on the turbulence for under‐resolved computations. The first test case is the LES of decaying homogeneous isotropic turbulence (HIT) at very high Reynolds number. This benchmark allows to assess the spectral behaviour of the method for implicit LES. The results are in agreement with theory and are even slightly more accurate than other numerical results from literature, obtained using a pseudo‐spectral (PS) method with a state‐of‐the‐art subgrid‐scale model. The second benchmark is the LES of the channel flow. Three Reynolds numbers are considered: Re_τ=395, 590 and 950. The results are compared with DNS of Moser et al. and Hoyas et al., also using PS methods. Both averaged velocity and fluctuations are globally in good agreement with the reference, showing the ability of the method to predict equilibrium wall‐bounded flow turbulence. To show that the method is able to perform accurate DNS, a DNS of HIT at Re_λ=64 and a DNS of the channel flow at Re_τ=180 are also performed. The effects of the grid refinement are investigated on the channel flow at Re_τ=395, highlighting the improvement of the results when refining the mesh in the spanwise direction. Finally, the modification of the ILES parameters, that is the Riemann solver and of the SIP coefficient, is studied on both cases, showing a significant influence on the choice of the Riemann solver. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Modelling of pressure–strain correlation in compressible turbulent flow

Previous studies carried out in the early 1990s conjectured that the main compressible effects could be associated with the dilatational effects of velocity fluctuation. Later, it was shown that the main compressibility effect came from the reduced pressure-strain term due to reduced pressure fluctuations. Although better understanding of the compressible turbulence is generally achieved with the increased DNS and experimental research effort, there are still some discrepancies among these recent findings. Analysis of the DNS and experimental data suggests that some of the discrepancies are apparent if the compressible effect is related to the turbulent Mach number, Mt. From the comparison of two classes of compressible flow, homogenous shear flow and inhomogeneous shear flow （mixing layer）, we found that the effect of compressibility on both classes of shear flow can be characterized in three categories corresponding to three regions of turbulent Mach numbers： the low-Mr, the moderate-Mr and high-Mr regions. In these three regions the effect of compressibility on the growth rate of the turbulent mixing layer thickness is rather different. A simple approach to the reduced pressure-strain effect may not necessarily reduce the mixing-layer growth rate, and may even cause an increase in the growth rate. The present work develops a new second-moment model for the compressible turbulence through the introduction of some blending functions of Mt to account for the compressibility effects on the flow. The model has been successfully applied to the compressible mixing layers.     

Optimized group velocity control scheme and DNS of decaying compressible turbulence of relative high turbulent Mach number

To overcome the difficulty in the DNS of compressible turbulence at high turbulent Mach number, a new difference scheme called GVC8 is developed. We have succeeded in the direct numerical simulation of decaying compressible turbulence up to turbulent Mach number 0.95. The statistical quantities thus obtained at lower turbulent Mach number agree well with those from previous authors with the same initial conditions, but they are limited to simulate at lower turbulent Mach numbers due to the so‐called start‐up problem. The energy spectrum and coherent structure of compressible turbulent flow are analysed. The scaling law of compressible turbulence is studied. The computed results indicate that the extended self‐similarity holds in decaying compressible turbulence despite the occurrence of shocklets, and compressibility has little effects on relative scaling exponents when turbulent Mach number is not very high. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Surface‐sampled simulations of turbulent flow at high Reynolds number

A new approach to turbulence simulation, based on a combination of large eddy simulation (LES) for the whole flow and an array of non–space‐filling quasi‐direct numerical simulations (QDNS), which sample the response of near‐wall turbulence to large‐scale forcing, is proposed and evaluated. The technique overcomes some of the cost limitations of turbulence simulation, since the main flow is treated with a coarse‐grid LES, with the equivalent of wall functions supplied by the near‐wall sampled QDNS. Two cases are tested, at friction Reynolds number Re_τ=4200 and 20000. The total grid point count for the first case is less than half a million and less than 2 million for the second case, with the calculations only requiring a desktop computer. A good agreement with published direct numerical simulation (DNS) is found at Re_τ=4200, both in the mean velocity profile and the streamwise velocity fluctuation statistics, which correctly show a substantial increase in near‐wall turbulence levels due to a modulation of near‐wall streaks by large‐scale structures. The trend continues at Re_τ=20000, in agreement with experiment, which represents one of the major achievements of the new approach. A number of detailed aspects of the model, including numerical resolution, LES‐QDNS coupling strategy and subgrid model are explored. A low level of grid sensitivity is demonstrated for both the QDNS and LES aspects. Since the method does not assume a law of the wall, it can in principle be applied to flows that are out of equilibrium.     

Large eddy simulation of compressible channel flow

Astract The present study is a contribution to the analysis of wall-bounded compressible flows, including a special focus on wall modeling for compressible turbulent boundary layer in a plane channel. large eddy simulation (LES) of fully developed isothermal channel flows at Re = 3,000 and Re = 4,880 with a sufficient mesh refinement at the wall are carried out in the Mach number range 0.3 ≤ M ≤ 3 for two different source term formulations: first the classical extension of the incompressible configuration by Coleman et al. (J. Fluid Mech. 305:159–183, 1995), second a formulation presently derived to model both streamwise pressure drop and streamwise internal energy loss in a spatially developed compressible channel flow. It is shown that the second formulation is consistent with the spatial problem and yields a much stronger cooling effect at the wall than the classical formulation. Based on the present LES data bank, compressibility and low Reynolds number effects are analysed in terms of coherent structure and statistics. A study of the universality of the structure of the turbulence in non-hypersonic compressible boundary layers (M≤5) is performed in reference to Bradshaw (Annu. Rev. Fluid. Mech. 9:33–54, 1977). An improvement of the van Driest transformation is proposed; it accounts for both density and viscosity changes in the wall layer. Consistently, a new integral wall scaling (y ^c+) which accounts for strong temperature gradients at the wall is developed for the present non-adiabatic compressible flow. The modification of the strong Reynolds analogy proposed by Huang et al. (J. Fluid Mech. 305:185–218, 1995) to model the correlation between velocity and temperature for non-adiabatic wall layers is assessed on the basis of a Crocco–Busemann relation specific to channel flow. The key role of the mixing turbulent Prandtl number Pr _m is pointed out. Results show very good agreement for both source formulations although each of them involve a very different amount of energy transfer at the wall. The present work was performed within the framework of the French–German research initiative “large eddy simulation of complex flows’ (UR 507). The computing resources were provided by IDRIS-France. The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the Centre d’été Mathématique de Recherche Avancée en Calcul Scientifique (CEMRACS) and the Direction Générale de l’Armement (DGA/D4S).     

Large eddy simulation using a dynamic mixing length subgrid‐scale model

A novel dynamic mixing length (DML) subgrid‐scale model for large eddy simulations is proposed in this work to improve the cutoff length of the Smagorinsky model. The characteristic mixing length (or the characteristic wave number) is dynamically estimated for the subgrid‐scale fluctuation of turbulence by the cutoff wave‐number, k_c, and the dissipation wave‐number, k_d. The dissipation wave number is derived from the kinetic energy spectrum equation and the dissipation spectrum equation. To prove the promise of the DML model, this model is used to simulate the lid‐driven cubical cavity with max‐velocity‐based Reynolds numbers 8850 and 12,000, the channel flows with friction‐velocity‐based Reynolds numbers 180, 395, 590, and 950, and the turbulent flow past a square cylinder at the higher Reynolds number 21,400, respectively, compared with the Smagorinsky model and Germano et al.'s dynamic Smagorinsky model. Different numerical experiments with different Reynolds numbers show that the DML model can be used in simulations of flows with a wide range of Reynolds numbers without the occurrence of singular values. The DML model can alleviate the dissipation of the Smagorinsky model without the loss of its robustness. The DML model shows some advantages over Germano et al.'s dynamic Smagorinsky model in its high stability and simplicity of calculation because the coefficient of the DML model always stays positive. The characteristic mixing length in the DML model reflects the subgrid‐scale fluctuation of turbulence in nature and thus the characteristic mixing length has a spatial and temporal distribution in turbulent flow. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Implicit large-eddy simulation applied to turbulent channel flow with periodic constrictions

The subgrid-scale (SGS) model in a large-eddy simulation (LES) operates on a range of scales which is marginally resolved by discretization schemes. Accordingly, the discretization scheme and the subgrid-scale model are linked. One can exploit this link by developing discretization methods from subgrid-scale models, or the converse. Approaches where SGS models and numerical discretizations are fully merged are called implicit LES (ILES). Recently, we have proposed a systematic framework for the design, analysis, and optimization of nonlinear discretization schemes for implicit LES. In this framework parameters inherent to the discretization scheme are determined in such a way that the numerical truncation error acts as a physically motivated SGS model. The resulting so-called adaptive local deconvolution method (ALDM) for implicit LES allows for reliable predictions of isotropic forced and decaying turbulence and of unbounded transitional flows for a wide range of Reynolds numbers. In the present paper, ALDM is evaluated for the separated flow through a channel with streamwise-periodic constrictions at two Reynolds numbers Re = 2,808 and Re = 10,595. We demonstrate that, although model parameters of ALDM have been determined for isotropic turbulence at infinite Reynolds number, it successfully predicts mean flow and turbulence statistics in the considered physically complex, anisotropic, and inhomogeneous flow regime. It is shown that the implicit model performs at least as well as an established explicit model.      

Towards a Unified Turbulence Simulation Approach for Wall-Bounded Flows

A hybrid Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes/Large-Eddy Simulation (RANS/LES) methodology has received considerable attention in recent years, especially in its application to wall-bounded flows at high-Reynolds numbers. In the conventional zonal hybrid approach, eddy-viscosity-type RANS and subgrid scale models are applied in the RANS and LES zones, respectively. In contrast, the non-zonal hybrid approach uses only a generalized turbulence model, which provides a unified simulation approach that spans the continuous spectrum of modeling/simulation schemes from RANS to LES. A particular realization of the non-zonal approach, known as partially resolved numerical simulation (PRNS), uses a generalized turbulence model obtained from a rescaling of a conventional RANS model through the introduction of a resolution control function F _R , where F _R is used to characterize the degree of modeling required to represent the unresolved scales of turbulent motion. A new generalized functional form for F _R in PRNS is proposed in this study, and its performance is compared with unsteady RANS (URANS) and LES computations for attached and separated wall-bounded turbulent flows. It is demonstrated that PRNS behaves similarly to LES, but outperforms URANS in general.     

Progress in subgrid-scale transport modelling for continuous hybrid non-zonal RANS/LES simulations

The partially integrated transport modelling (PITM) method can be viewed as a continuous approach for hybrid RANS/LES modelling allowing seamless coupling between the RANS and the LES regions. The subgrid turbulence quantities are thus calculated from spectral equations depending on the varying spectral cutoff location [Schiestel, R., Dejoan, A., 2005. Towards a new partially integrated transport model for coarse grid and unsteady turbulent flow simulations. Theoretical and Computational Fluid Dynamics 18, 443–468; Chaouat, B., Schiestel, R., 2005. A new partially integrated transport model for subgrid-scale stresses and dissipation rate for turbulent developing flows. Physics of Fluids, 17 (6)] The PITM method can be applied to almost all statistical models to derive its hybrid LES counterpart. In the present work, the PITM version based on the transport equations for the turbulent Reynolds stresses together with the dissipation transport rate equation is now developed in a general formulation based on a new accurate energy spectrum function E(κ) valid in both large and small eddy ranges that allows to calibrate more precisely the c_sgs2 function involved in the subgrid dissipation rate _sgs transport equation. The model is also proposed here in an extended form which remains valid in low Reynolds number turbulent flows. This is achieved by considering a characteristic turbulence length-scale based on the total turbulent energy and the total dissipation rate taking into account the subgrid and resolved parts of the dissipation rate. These improvements allow to consider a large range of flows including various free flows as well as bounded flows. The present model is first tested on the decay of homogeneous isotropic turbulence by referring to the well known experiment of Comte-Bellot and Corrsin. Then, initial perturbed spectra E(κ) with a peak or a defect of energy are considered for analysing the model capabilities in strong non-equilibrium flow situations. The second test case is the classical fully turbulent channel flow that allows to assess the performance of the model in non-homogeneous flows characterised by important anisotropy effects. Different simulations are performed on coarse and refined meshes for checking the grid independence of solutions as well as the consistency of the subgrid-scale model when the filter width is changed. A special attention is devoted to the sharing out of the energy between the subgrid-scales and the resolved scales. Both the mean velocity and the turbulent stress computations are compared with data from direct numerical simulations.     

GPU‐accelerated direct numerical simulations of decaying compressible turbulence employing a GKM‐based solver

Gas Kinetic Method‐based flow solvers have become popular in recent years owing to their robustness in simulating high Mach number compressible flows. We evaluate the performance of the newly developed analytical gas kinetic method (AGKM) by Xuan et al. in performing direct numerical simulation of canonical compressible turbulent flow on graphical processing unit (GPU)s. We find that for a range of turbulent Mach numbers, AGKM results shows excellent agreement with high order accurate results obtained with traditional Navier–Stokes solvers in terms of key turbulence statistics. Further, AGKM is found to be more efficient as compared with the traditional gas kinetic method for GPU implementation. We present a brief overview of the optimizations performed on NVIDIA K20 GPU and show that GPU optimizations boost the speedup up‐to 40x as compared with single core CPU computations. Hence, AGKM can be used as an efficient method for performing fast and accurate direct numerical simulations of compressible turbulent flows on simple GPU‐based workstations. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dynamic Model for LES Without Test Filtering: Quantifying the Accuracy of Taylor Series Approximations

The dynamic model for large-eddy simulation (LES) of turbulent flows requires test filtering the resolved velocity fields in order to determine model coefficients. However, test filtering is costly to perform in LES of complex geometry flows, especially on unstructured grids. The objective of this work is to develop and test an approximate but less costly dynamic procedure which does not require test filtering. The proposed method is based on Taylor series expansions of the resolved velocity fields. Accuracy is governed by the derivative schemes used in the calculation and the number of terms considered in the approximation to the test filtering operator. The expansion is developed up to fourth order, and results are tested a priori based on direct numerical simulation data of forced isotropic turbulence in the context of the dynamic Smagorinsky model. The tests compare the dynamic Smagorinsky coefficient obtained from filtering with those obtained from application of the Taylor series expansion. They show that the expansion up to second order provides a reasonable approximation to the true dynamic coefficient (with errors on the order of about 5% for c _s ²), but that including higher-order terms does not necessarily lead to improvements in the results due to inherent limitations in accurately evaluating high-order derivatives. A posteriori tests using the Taylor series approximation in LES of forced isotropic turbulence and channel flow confirm that the Taylor series approximation yields accurate results for the dynamic coefficient. Moreover, the simulations are stable and yield accurate resolved velocity statistics. Received 20 February 2001 and accepted 24 July 2001     

Compressible spreading rates of supersonic coaxial jets

The compressible spreading rates of two supersonic coaxial jets were studied experimentally. The center jet had a fully-expanded Mach number of 3, and the outer jet of M = 1.8. The geometries of the center jet were circular and rectangular with two configurations, both with a 3∶1 aspect-ratio. The convective Mach numbers were varied in the range between 0.25 < M _c< 2.25. This was accomplished by varying the density ratio between the center jet and the coaxial jet, as well as the velocity ratio. The experimental compressible spreading rate was determined using Schlieren photography and total-pressure measurements. The spreading rate of the center circular jet decreased with increasing convective Mach number until it reached a constant value of 0.2 to 0.3 of the incompressible spreading rate for M _c>1.4. The rectangular jets exhibited a similar drop, at the same range of M _c, but their spreading rate was higher relative to the circular jet in the entire convective Mach number range.     

Analyzing the influence of compressibility on the rapid pressure–strain rate correlation in turbulent shear flows

The influence of compressibility on the rapid pressure–strain rate tensor is investigated using the Green’s function for the wave equation governing pressure fluctuations in compressible homogeneous shear flow. The solution for the Green’s function is obtained as a combination of parabolic cylinder functions; it is oscillatory with monotonically increasing frequency and decreasing amplitude at large times, and anisotropic in wave-vector space. The Green’s function depends explicitly on the turbulent Mach number M _t , given by the root mean square turbulent velocity fluctuations divided by the speed of sound, and the gradient Mach number M _g , which is the mean shear rate times the transverse integral scale of the turbulence divided by the speed of sound. Assuming a form for the temporal decorrelation of velocity fluctuations brought about by the turbulence, the rapid pressure–strain rate tensor is expressed exactly in terms of the energy (or Reynolds stress) spectrum tensor and the time integral of the Green’s function times a decaying exponential. A model for the energy spectrum tensor linear in Reynolds stress anisotropies and in mean shear is assumed for closure. The expression for the rapid pressure–strain correlation is evaluated using parameters applicable to a mixing layer and a boundary layer. It is found that for the same range of M _t there is a large reduction of the pressure–strain correlation in the mixing layer but not in the boundary layer. Implications for compressible turbulence modeling are also explored.      

Numerical simulations of non‐equilibrium turbulent boundary layer flowing over a bump

Large‐eddy simulation (LES) and Reynolds‐averaged Navier–Stokes simulation (RANS) with different turbulence models (including the standard k?ε, the standard k?ω, the shear stress transport k?ω (SST k?ω), and Spalart–Allmaras (S–A) turbulence models) have been employed to compute the turbulent flow of a two‐dimensional turbulent boundary layer over an unswept bump. The predictions of the simulations were compared with available experimental measurements in the literature. The comparisons of the LES and the SST k?ω model including the mean flow and turbulence stresses are in satisfied agreements with the available measurements. Although the flow experiences a strong adverse pressure gradient along the rear surface, the boundary layer is unique in that intermittent detachment occurring near the wall. The numerical results indicate that the boundary layer is not followed by mean‐flow separation or incipient separation as shown from the numerical results. The resolved turbulent shear stress is in a reasonable agreement with the experimental data, though the computational result of LES shows that its peak is overpredicted near the trailing edge of the bump, while the other used turbulence models, except the standard k?ε, underpredicts it. Analysis of the numerical results from LES confirms the experimental data, in which the existence of internal layers over the bump surface upstream of the summit and along the downstream flat plate. It also demonstrates that the quasi‐step increase in skin friction is due to perturbations in pressure gradient. The surface curvature enhances the near‐wall shear production of turbulent stresses, and is responsible for the formation of the internal layers. The aim of the present work is to examine the response and prediction capability of LES with the dynamic eddy viscosity model as a sub‐grid scale to the complex turbulence structure with the presence of streamline curvature generated by a bumpy surface. Aiming to reduce the computational costs with focus on the mean behavior of the non‐equilibrium turbulent boundary layer of flow over the bump surface, the present investigation also explains the best capability of one of the used RANS turbulence models to capture the driving mechanism for the surprisingly rapid return to equilibrium over the trailing flat plate found in the measurements. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical Simulations of the Sandia Flame D Using the Eddy Dissipation Concept

A turbulent piloted methane/air diffusion flame (Sandia Flame D) is calculated using both compressible Reynolds-averaged and large-eddy simulations (RAS and LES, respectively). The Eddy Dissipation Concept (EDC) is used for the turbulence-chemistry interaction, which assumes that molecular mixing and the subsequent combustion occur in the fine structures (smaller dissipative eddies, which are close to the Kolmogorov length scales). Assuming the full turbulence energy cascade, the characteristic length and velocity scales of the fine structures are evaluated using a standard k- ?? turbulence model for RAS and a one-equation eddy-viscosity sub-grid scale model for LES. Finite-rate chemical kinetics are taken into account by treating the fine structures as constant pressure and adiabatic homogeneous reactors (calculated as a system of ordinary-differential equations (ODEs)) described by a Perfectly Stirred Reactor (PSR) concept. A robust implicit Runge-Kutta method (RADAU5) is used for integrating stiff ODEs to evaluate reaction rates. The radiation heat transfer is treated by the P1-approximation. The assumed β-PDF approach is applied to assess the influence of modeling of the turbulence-chemistry interaction. Numerical results are compared with available experimental data. In general, there is good agreement between present simulations and measurements both for RAS and LES, which gives a good indication on the adequacy and accuracy of the method and its further application for turbulent combustion simulations.     

Performance of very‐high‐order upwind schemes for DNS of compressible wall‐turbulence

The purpose of the present paper is to evaluate very‐high‐order upwind schemes for the direct numerical simulation (DNS ) of compressible wall‐turbulence. We study upwind‐biased (UW ) and weighted essentially nonoscillatory (WENO ) schemes of increasingly higher order‐of‐accuracy (J. Comp. Phys. 2000; 160 :405–452), extended up to WENO 17 (AIAA Paper 2009‐1612, 2009). Analysis of the advection–diffusion equation, both as Δx→0 (consistency), and for fixed finite cell‐Reynolds‐number Re_Δx (grid‐resolution), indicates that the very‐high‐order upwind schemes have satisfactory resolution in terms of points‐per‐wavelength (PPW ). Computational results for compressible channel flow (Re∈[180, 230]; M?_CL ∈[0.35, 1.5]) are examined to assess the influence of the spatial order of accuracy and the computational grid‐resolution on predicted turbulence statistics, by comparison with existing compressible and incompressible DNS databases. Despite the use of baseline O(Δt²) time‐integration and O(Δx²) discretization of the viscous terms, comparative studies of various orders‐of‐accuracy for the convective terms demonstrate that very‐high‐order upwind schemes can reproduce all the DNS details obtained by pseudospectral schemes, on computational grids of only slightly higher density. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

From Two-Point Closures of Isotropic Turbulence to LES of Shear Flows

We first recall the EDQNM two-point closure approach of three-dimensional isotropic turbulence. It allows in particular prediction of the infrared kinetic-energy dynamics (with ak ₄ backscatter) and the associated time-decay law of kinetic-energy, useful in particular for one-point closure modelling. Afterwards, we show how the spectral eddy viscosity concept may be used for large-eddy simulations: we introduce the plateau-peak model and the spectral-dynamic models. They are applied to decaying isotropic turbulence, and allow recovery of the EDQNM infrared energy dynamics. Anew infrared k ₂ law for the pressure spectrum, predicted by the closure, is also well verified. Assuming that subgrid scales are not too far from isotropy, the spectral-dynamic model is applied to the channel flow at h ₊= 390, with statistics in very good agreement with DNS, while reducing considerably the computational time. We study with the aid of DNS and LES the case of the channel rotating about an axis of spanwise direction. The calculations allow to recover the universal linear behaviour of the mean velocity profile, with a local Rossby number equal to −1. We present also LES (using the Grenoble Filtered Structure-Function Model), of a turbulent boundary layer passing over a cavity. Finally, we make some remarks on the future of LES for industrial applications. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Numerical simulation of turbulent flow through series stenoses

The flow fields in the neighbourhoods of series vascular stenoses are studied numerically for the Reynolds numbers from 100 to 4000, diameter constriction ratios of 0.2–0.6 and spacing ratios of 1, 2, 3, 4 and ∞. In this study, it has been further verified that in the laminar flow region, the numerical predictions by k–ω turbulence model matched those by the laminar‐flow modelling very well. This suggests that the k–ω turbulence model is capable of the prediction of the laminar flow as well as the prediction of the turbulent stenotic flow with good accuracy. The extent of the spreading of the recirculation region from the first stenosis and its effects on the flow field downstream of the second stenosis depend on the stenosis spacing ratio, constriction ratio and the Reynolds number. For c₁ = 0.5 with c₂ ≤ c₁, the peak value of wall vorticity generated by the second stenosis is always less than that generated by the first stenosis. However, the maximum centreline velocity and turbulence intensity at the second stenosis are higher than those at the first stenosis. In contrast, for c₁ = 0.5 with c₂ = 0.6, the maximum values at the second stenosis are much higher than those at the first stenosis whether for centreline velocity and turbulence intensity or for wall vorticity. The peak values of the wall vorticity and the centreline disturbance intensity both grow up with the Reynolds number increasing. The present study shows that the more stenoses can result in a lower critical Reynolds number that means an earlier occurrence of turbulence for the stenotic flows. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.