Near-Wall Modification of an Explicit Algebraic Reynolds Stress Model Using Elliptic Blending

The elliptic blending approach is used in order to modify an Explicit Algebraic Reynolds Stress Model so as to reproduce the correct near wall behaviour of the turbulent stresses. The anisotropy stress tensor is expressed as a linear combination of tensor bases whose coefficients are sensitised to the non-local wall-blocking effect through the elliptic blending parameter γ. This parameter is obtained from a separate elliptic equation. The model does not use the distance from the wall thus it can be easily applied to complex geometries. It is validated against detailed DNS data for mean and turbulence quantities for the case of flow and heat transfer between parallel flat plates at three Reynolds numbers as well as against experimental data for the flow in a backward facing step at Re _H = 28,000. The comparison with DNS results or experiments is quite satisfactory and shows the validity of the approach.