DNS and LES of some engineering flows

In this paper, direct numerical simulations (DNS) and large eddy simulations (LES) of three engineering flows carried out in the author's research group are presented. The first example, simulated both with DNS and LES, is the flow in a low-pressure turbine cascade with wakes passing periodically through the cascade channel. In this situation, the laminar–turbulent transition of the boundary layers on the blade surfaces, which is strongly influenced by the passing wakes, is of special interest. Next, LES of the flow past the Ahmed body is presented, which is a car model with slant back. In spite of the fairly simple geometry, the flow around the model has many features of the complex, fully 3D flow around real cars. The third example, for which LES is presented, is the flow past a surface mounted circular cylinder of height-to-diameter ratio of 2.5. In this case also complex 3D flow develops with interaction of various vortices behind the cylinder. By means of these examples, the paper shows that complex turbulent flows of engineering relevance can be predicted realistically by DNS and LES, albeit at large cost. The methods are particularly suited and superior to RANS methods for situations where unsteadiness like shedding and large-scale structures dominate the flow, and DNS has evolved into an important tool for studying transition mechanisms.