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At least 199 records · Page 11

A Wall-Modeled LES Perspective for the High Lift Common Research Model Using LAVA

A new immersed boundary Wall-Modelled Large Eddy Simulation (WMLES) formulation is developed to study high-lift aerodynamics on the NASA High-Lift Common Research Model (HL-CRM). A sequence of Cartesian Octree grids with sizes ranging from 100 Million through 2.02 Billion grid points is utilized to systematically assess grid-sensitivity and convergence for the in-tunnel (QinetiQ) configuration of the model, and remarkable agreement between the immersed boundary and the curvilinear body-aligned WMLES formulations is reported on grids with comparable resolutions. In the free-air configuration of the model, consistent predictions between the Curvilinear Overset and the Cartesian Octree formulations are reported for angles of attack up to C(L,max) at a=19.57. However, some differences in the onset of stall are seen between the two methods for a>20°: while the curvilinear WMLES experiences wing-root separation with increasing angle of attack (Topology A), the Cartesian Octree formulation shows a different flow topology characterized by boundary layer weakness on the main element, emanating from the pylon-wing attachment (Topology B). In order to obtain further insight into the two-distinct topologies, carefully designed numerical experiments to isolate effects of the model standoff and the tunnel wall-boundary layers are conducted using the immersed boundary WMLES formulation. The increased incidence angle-of-attack on the inboard portion of the wing due to the standoff is shown to be sufficient for triggering a switch from Topology B to Topology A in Cartesian WMLES. The role of the floor boundary layer is further examined in detail by identification of additional corner-flow vorticity generated by the viscous juncture flow interactions between the floor boundary layer and the standoff leading to formation of a strong coherent and persistent vortex on the belly-side of the fuselage. The intensity of this vortex is shown to increase with the thickness of the floor boundary layer. A further increase in the incidence angle of attack near the leading-edge strake caused by the presence of this belly-side vortex is quantified for two-distinct floor boundary layers. Both of the floor boundary layers considered result in the onset of large scale wing-root separation at a=21.47in non-confined (free-air) configurations.

TTT↗

Wall-modeled LES of Turbulent Flow Over a Two-dimensional Gaussian Bump

We perform wall-modeled large eddy simulations (WMLES) of turbulent flow over a nominally two-dimensional Gaussian-shaped bump geometry to assess its performance in the accelerating and separation regions of the flow. The flow conditions are based on high-fidelity numerical simulation of Uzun & Malik (AIAA Journal 2022). The oncoming flow Mach number is 0.2, with the bump length-based Reynolds number (ReL) of 2 million. In our previous study, while WMLES with the constant coefficient Vreman subgrid scale model and equilibrium wall model performed satisfactorily at lower ReL = 1 million, it failed to predict flow separation at the higher Re, contrary to the experimental observations. We investigate the sensitivity of WMLES to different subgrid scale models, wall models, and grid resolution and topology on flow separation by comparing with available data.

Computational Fluid Dynamics↗

Wall-modeled LES of the Three-dimensional Speed Bump Experiment

We evaluate the performance of wall-modeled large eddy simulation (WMLES) in predicting smooth-body turbulent flow separation for a three-dimensional Gaussian-shaped speed bump geometry. The Reynolds number based on the bump length is 2 million, and an unstructured compressible finite-volume solver is used with an equilibrium wall model and dynamic subgrid scale model. Spanwise periodic simulations of the centerline two-dimensional bump were used to assess grid resolution requirements, and resolving the thin internal layer in the accelerating region was found to be necessary to correctly capture the downstream separated flow region. Based on these insights, an optimized grid that was smaller by a factor of two provided comparable accuracy to a finer grid that has been used by us and other researchers in past studies. Using insights gained from the spanwise periodic simulation, an unstructured polyhderal grid with about 250 million cells was used for the three-dimensional (3D) configuration with inviscid tunnel side and top walls. Detailed comparisons of wall skin-friction coefficient, wall pressure, velocity and turbulent stresses with available experimental data indicated excellent agreement. While the low-Reynolds Number Spalart-Allmaras RANS model with rotation/curvature correction gave qualitatively good agreement with experiments, WMLES showed significantly more accurate quantitative predictions of the flowfield. The 3D WMLES showed good agreement with experiments in the separated region, and the centerplane results indicated a different separation topology compared to the spanwise periodic simulation.

Computational Fluid Dynamics↗

An LES Survey of Cold-Air Outbreaks Spanning ACTIVATE and COMBLE

Two recent field campaigns offer unique new opportunities to survey coupled aerosol and cloud processes operating within cold-air outbreaks (CAOs). NASA's 2019-2023 Aerosol Cloud meTeorology Interactions oVer the western Atlantic Experiment (ACTIVATE) project provided airborne in situ and remote sensing observations in multiple CAOs off the central US Eastern Seaboard. Contemporaneously, DOE's 2019-2020 Cold-air Outbreaks in the Marine Boundary Layer Experiment (COMBLE) provided continuous ground-based in situ and remote sensing measurements during hundreds of hours of CAO conditions at two sites flanking the Norwegian Sea. Here we highlight lessons learned from contrasting sets of aerosol-aware Lagrangian large-eddy simulation case studies derived from each campaign, as well as outstanding uncertainties. Cases simulated include all of the most extensively sampled CAO flights during ACTIVATE, and a wide range of CAO strengths and mesoscale structures during COMBLE. Each case study is also suitable for simulation with large-scale models in single-column model mode or with a limited-domain approach using periodic boundary conditions. We seek to address the central question: what microphysical process pathways control the Lagrangian evolution of surface and top-of-atmosphere radiative fluxes under ACTIVATE and COMBLE conditions? Many science team members, co-investigators, and collaborators will be gratefully acknowledged in association with their contributions to making this work possible.

cold-air outbreaks↗

Evaluation of Wall-Modeled Les for Flow Over A Multi-Element Airfoil

We perform wall-modeled large-eddy simulations (WMLES) of turbulent flow over a 30P30N multielement airfoil at various angles of attack to assess its ability to accurately predict lift using an unstructured node-based finite-volume methodology. The flow conditions are based on the experiments reported in Klausmeyer & Lin [NASA /TM-112858]. The oncoming flow Mach number is 0.2, and the stowed chord-based Reynolds number (𝑅𝑒𝑐) is 9 million. The angle of attack (𝛼) is varied between 8◦ and 23◦ with the expected stall angle of around 21◦. The simulated geometry is periodic in the span, thus any three-dimensional effects present in the experiment are ignored. We first analyze the predictions with baseline isotropic and anisotropic grids containing over 16 grid points per boundary-layer thickness. The near-wall streamwise/nominal spacing ratio is 0.4 at the leading/trailing edges of the slat, main element and flap, and 1 elsewhere, and the first wall-normal/nominal spacing ratio is 0.375 over most of the airfoil for the anisotropic grid, while these are unity for the isotropic grid. It is found that the predicted lift and wall pressures, near-wall velocity profiles, and the location of onset of resolved turbulence are sensitive to the near-wall grid anisotropy. Further sensitivities were explored at lower angles of attack by independently varying the streamwise and wall-normal grid anisotropies. The effects of both off-wall and near-wall grid refinement were also quantified. For the grid resolutions used here, our results suggest that the first wall-normal spacing, which coincides with the WMLES exchange location, has a dominant effect on the predictions for this flow configuration.

Computational Fluid Dynamics↗