Numerical turbulence modeling

Abstract

The underlying bases and developments in two techniques of detailed turbulence modeling are described where the flow is treated in the Eulerian sense, and one technique where the Lagrangian motions of vortices are followed. First, a technique is described for solving the single-point statistically averaged conservation equations. The Reynolds stresses that appear in these equations are evaluated by solving supplemental differential equations which contain terms that are modeled. A sequence of increasingly complex, but also increasingly general, modeling equations is described and computations based on these equations are compared with experimental data. The hierarchy of models described terminates with equations for the individual components of the Reynolds stress tensor. The second Eulerian technique approach to turbulence modeling is the direct numerical simulation of turbulent fields. In this approach, all three dimensional eddies between a predetermined range of sizes are computed in time within a specified volume of flow. Present day computers require a tradeoff between the size of the volume that can be considered and the degree of resolution of the turbulent eddies. Techniques of modeling the smallest eddies are described that permit enlarging the volume, or Reynolds number, that can be considered.