1. Turbulence Modelling: Large Eddy Simulation

2. Turbulence Modeling: Large Eddy Simulation and Hybrid RANS/LES
Introduction
LES Sub-grid Models
Numerical aspect and Mesh
Boundary conditions
Hybrid approaches
Sample Results

3. Turbulence Structures

4. Introduction: LES / other Prediction Methods
Different approaches to make turbulence computationally tractable:
DNS: Direct Simulation.
RANS: Reynolds average (or time or ensemble)
LES: Spatially average (or filter)
LES
3D, unsteady
DNS
3D, unsteady
RANS
Steady / unsteady

5. RANS vs LES
RANS model1
RANS model 2
LES

6. Why LES?
Some applications need explicit computation of accurate unsteady fields.
Bluff body aerodynamics
Aerodynamically generated noise (sound)
Fluid-structure interaction
Mixing
Combustion …

7. LES : difficulties Cpu expensive for atmospheric modelling:
Unsteady simulation
Turn around time is weeks/months (rans is hours or days)
Cannot afford grid independence testing
Still open research issues
combustion, acoustics, high Prandtl, shmidt mixing problem, uns.
Wall bounded flows
Need expertise to reduce cpu, human cost
Mesh – models – strategy
Analysis of the instantaneous flow
Knowledge about turbulent instabilities, turbulent structures

8. Energy Spectrum e Eu,ET k,f Large eddies: Small eddies
responsible for the transports of momentum, energy, and other scalars.
anisotropic, subjected to history effects, are strongly dependent on boundary conditions, which makes their modeling difficult.
Small eddies
tend to be more isotropic and less flow-dependent (universal), mainly dissipative scales, which makes their modeling easier.

9. LES: Filtering - Decomposition
Energy spectrum against the length scale
Anisotropic
Flow dependent
Isotropic
Homogeneous
Universal

10. Filtering
The large or resolved scale field is a local average of the complete field.
e.g., in 1-D,
Where G(x,x’) is the filter kernel.
Exemple: “box filter” G(x,x’) = 1/D if |x-x’|<D/2, 0 otherwise

11. Filtered Navier-Stokes Equations
Filtering the original Navier-Stokes equations gives filtered Navier-Stokes equations that are the governing equations in LES.
N-S equation
Filter
Filtered N-S equation
Needs modeling
Sub-grid scale (SGS) stress

12. Available SGS model Subgrid stress : turbulent viscosity
Smagorinsky model (Smagorinsky, 1963)
Need ad-hoc near wall damping
Dynamic model (Germano et al., 1991)
Local adaptation of the Smagorinsky constant
Dynamic subgrid kinetic energy transport model (Kim & Menon 2001)
Robust constant calculation procedure
Physical limitation of backscatter

13. Smagorinsky’s Model Hypothesis: local equilibrium of sub-grid scales
Simple algebraic (0-equation) model (similar to Prandtle Mixing length model in RANS)
Cs= ~ 0.25
The major shortcoming is that there is no Cs universally applicable to different types of flow.
Difficulty with transitional (laminar) flows.
An ad hoc damping is needed in near-wall region.
Turbulent viscosity is always positive so no possibility of backscatter.
with

14. Dynamic Smagorinsky’s Model
Based on the similarity concept and Germano’s identity (Germano et al., 1991; Lilly, 1992)
Introduce a second filter, called the test filter with scale larger than the grid filter scale
The model parameter (Cs ) is automatically adjusted using the resolved velocity field.
Overcomes the shortcomings of the Smagorinsky’s model.
Can handle transitional flows
The near-wall (damping) effects are accounted for.
Potential Instability of the constant

15. Dynamic Smagorinsky’s Model
Basic Idea : consider the same smagorinsky model at two different scales, and adjust the constant accordingly
Constant value = error minimization using least square method and Germano’s Identity
Test Filter
Grid Filter
Tij
Error minimization
ij
Lij

16. Dynamic Subgrid KE Transport Model
Kim and Menon (1997)
One-equation (for SGS kinetic energy) model
Like the dynamic Smagorinsky’s model, the model constants (Ck, Ce) are automatically adjusted on-the-fly using the resolved velocity field.
Backscatter better accounted for

17. Mesh Grid resolution : Constraint Based on LES hypothesis:
Energie E(k)
Dissipation D(k)
Grid resolution :
Constraint Based on LES hypothesis:
Explicit Resolution of production mechanism (whereas production is modeled with RANS)
Resolution of anisotropic and energetic large scales
Cell size must be included inside the inertial range, in between the integral scale (L) and the Taylor micro-scale (l).
Integral scale L
Energy peaks at the integral scale. These scales must be resolved (with several grid points).
Crude Estimation of L :
Use correlation (mixing layer, jet) for L
Perform RANS calculation and compute L = k3/2 / e
1/L
1/
1/

18. Mesh Grid resolution: Taylor micro-scale l:
Dissipation rate peaks at l.
Not necessary to resolve l but useful to define a lower bound for the cell size.
Estimation of l ~ L ReL-1/2
( for an homogeneous and isotropic turbulence = 151/2 L ReL-1/2)
Temporal resolution: resolve characteristic time scale associated to the cell size (ie CFL=U Dt / Dx <1).
As for the numerical scheme (minimization of numerical errors) use of hexa and high quality of mesh (very small deformations) is recommended

19. Numerics: time step
Dt must be of the order (or even less for acoustic purpose) of the characteristic time scale t corresponding to the smallest resolved scales.
As t~Dx/U , it correspond to approx CFL = 1 (Courant Dreidrich Levy Number) (where U is the velocity scale of the flow)

20. Numerics: discretization scheme
Discretization scheme in space should minimize numerical dissipation
LES is much more sensitive to numerical diffusion than RANS
2nd Order Central Difference Scheme (CD or BCD) perform much better than high order upwind scheme for momentum
A commonly used remedy is to blend CD and FOU.
With a fixed weight (G = 0.8), this blending scheme has been found to still introduce considerable numerical diffusion
Bad idea!
Most ideally, we need a smart, solution-adaptive scheme that detects the wiggles on-the-fly and suppress them selectively.

21. Boundary Conditions (LES)
Near-wall resolving
Near-wall modelling
Inlet Boundary Conditions

22. Inlet Boundary Conditions
Laminar case:
Random noise is sufficient for transition
Turbulent case:
Precursor domain
Realistic inlet turbulence
Cpu cost – not universal
Vortex Method
Coherent structures – preserving turbulence
Need to use realistic profiles (U, k, e) – otherwise risk to force the flow
Spectral synthesizer
No spatial coherence
Flexibility for inlet (profiles of full reynolds stress or k-e, constant values, correlation)

23. Boundary Conditions Near Wall treatment 1/ Near Wall Resolving
All the near–wall turbulent structures are explicitly computed down to the viscous sub-layer.
2/ Near Wall Modeling
All the near-wall turbulent structures are explicitly computed down to a given y+ >1
3/ DES:
No turbulent structures are computed at all inside the entire boundary layer (all B.L. is modeled with RANS).

24. Boundary Conditions
1/ Near wall resolving : explicit resolution of the boundary layer.
Motivation: separated flows, complex physics (turbulence control)
High resolution requirement due to the presence of (anisotropic) wall turbulent structures: so called streaks.
Necessary to resolved correctly these near wall production mechanisms
Boundary layer grid resolution :
y+<2
Dx+ ~ , Dz+ ~ 15-40
Not only wall normal constraints, but also Span-wise and stream-wise constraints due to the streaky structures

25. Boundary Conditions Near wall modeling : Wall function:
Schumann/Grozbach:
Instantaneous wall shear stress at walls and instantaneous tangential velocity in the wall adjacent cells are assumed to be in phase.
Log law apply for mean velocity (necessary to perform acquisition)
Werner & Wengle (6.2):
Filtered Log law (power 1/7) applied to instantaneous quantities

26. Hybrid LES-URANS Near Walls: URANS 1-equation model
Core region: LES 1-equation SGS model

27. Hybrid LES-URANS
Navier Stokes time averaged in the near wall and filtered in the core region reads:

28. LES-URANS hybrid Use 1-equation model in both LES and URANS regions
LES region
RANS region

29. LES-URANS hybrid Problems: Solution:
LES region is supplied with bad BC from the URANS regions
The flow going from URANS to LES region has no proper time or length scale of turbulence
Solution:
Add synthesized isotropic fluctuations as the source term of the momentum equations at the LES-URANS interface.

30. Inlet BC and forcing

31. LES of a realistic Car model exposed to Crosswind
Side Box (max)
8 mm
6 mm
Rear Box (max)
Nb Prism layer 5
Volume mesh: Gambit & « Sizing Functions » to control both growth rate and cell size in specified box
Rear box
Side box

32. Results:

33. Simulation of flow over a 3D mountain

34. Comparision between RANS and LES-RANS hybrid model
RANS using SST model
Hybrid RANS-LES model

35. Conclusion RANS/URANS is not always reliable.
LES is closer to reality than RANS/URANS.
LES is computationally very expensive.
In the absence of enough experimental data one is left with no choice but to use LES wherever feasible.