Dynamic wall modeling for large-eddy simulation of complex turbulent flows

Abstract

The efficacy of large-eddy simulation (LES) with wall modeling for complex turbulent flows is assessed by considering turbulent boundary-layer flows past an asymmetric trailing-edge. Wall models based on turbulent boundary-layer equations and their simpler variants are employed to compute the instantaneous wall shear stress, which is used as approximate boundary conditions for the LES. It is demonstrated that, as first noted by Cabot and Moin [Flow Turb. Combust. 63, 269 (2000)], when a Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes type eddy viscosity is used in the wall-layer equations with nonlinear convective terms, its value must be reduced to account for only the unresolved part of the Reynolds stress. A dynamically adjusted mixing-length eddy viscosity is used in the turbulent boundary-layer equation model, which is shown to be considerably more accurate than the simpler wall models based on the instantaneous log law. This method predicts low-order velocity statistics in good agreement with those from the full LES with resolved wall-layers, at a small fraction of the original computational cost. In particular, the unsteady separation near the trailing-edge is captured correctly, and the prediction of surface pressure fluctuations also shows promise.