A new experiment of a turbulent boundary layer flow at adverse pressure gradient for validation and improvement of RANS turbulence models

Abstract

We present a turbulent boundary layer flow experiment at a significant adverse pressure gradient and at a high Reynolds number. We describe the design of the test case and the set-up in the wind-tunnel so that the flow is suitable for the validation of RANS turbulence models. We present RANS simulations using the SST k-ω model, and the SSG/LRR-ω and the JHh-v2 Reynolds stress model. We show that the predictive accuraccy in the adverse pressure gradient region is significantly effected by the predictive accuracy in the upstream located region of a favourable pressure gradient, where the mean flow follows a curved surface. The effects of flow history have to be taken into account when assessing turbulence models in the adverse pressure gradient region. We study in detail the role of the cross-diffusion term in the ω-equation for favourable and adverse pressure gradients.