A Dual-Grid Hybrid RANS/LES Model for Under-Resolved Near-Wall Regions and its Application to Heated and Separating Flows

Abstract

A hybrid RANS/LES model for high Reynolds number wall-bounded flows is presented, in which individual Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) and Large Eddy Simulations (LES) are computed in parallel on two fully overlapping grids. The instantaneous, fluctuating subgrid-scale stresses are blended with a statistical eddy viscosity model in regions where the LES grid is too coarse. In the present case, the hybrid model acts as a near-wall correction to the LES, while it retains the fluctuating nature of the flow field. The dual computation enables the LES to be run on isotropic grids with very low wall-normal and wall-parallel resolution, while the auxiliary RANS simulation is conducted on a wall-refined high-aspect ratio grid. Running distinct, progressively corrected simulations allows a clearer separation of the mean and instantaneous flow fields, compliant with the fundamentally dissimilar nature of RANS and LES. Even with the wall-nearest grid point lying far in the logarithmic layer, velocity and temperature predictions of a heated plane channel flow are corrected. For a periodic hill flow, the dual-grid system improves the boundary layer separation and velocity field prediction both for a constant-spaced and a wall-refined LES grid.