Interfacing Statistical Turbulence Closures with Large-Eddy Simulation

Abstract

Progress toward a general purpose hybrid Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS)/large-eddy simulation (LETS) framework is described, in which large-scale, statistically represented turbulence kinetic energy is converted automatically into resolved-scale velocity fluctuations wherever the local mesh resolution is sufficient to support them. Existing hybrid RANS/LES approaches alter the nature of the local partial differential equations according to the local mesh resolution, but they do not alter the nature of the data on which these equations operate. The implications of this are discussed. Subsequently, a simple mechanism is introduced to transfer statistical kinetic energy into resolved-scale fluctuations in a manner that preserves a given set of space/time correlations and set of second moments. This process, which can appropriately be termed Large-Eddy STimulation (LEST), generates the large-scale eddies needed to form the unsteady boundary conditions at RANS interfaces to LES regions, into which turbulence energy can be deposited either through mean convection or through turbulent transport