RANS modelling of some strongly swirling aerospace flows

Abstract

Progress is reported on the modelling, via RANS closures, of two swirling turbulent flows important in aeronautics: the trailing wing-tip vortex and the flow in rotor-stator cavities. For the former the decay of the vortex is only well captured at second-moment level while, for the latter, an unsteady flow computation brings out large-scale organized structures, with the number of structures varying with cavity aspect ratio and Reynolds number, a result qualitatively in accord with experiment. © 2009 AFM EDP Sciences.