Large-Eddy Simulations of a Single-Injector Cooling Flow Using the High-Order Flux Reconstruction Method
A single-injector cooling flow into a heated crossflow was used as a validation case for large eddy simulations (LES) from two high-order CFD codes with comparisons to a state-of-the-art Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) turbulence model. The focus of this paper is on the validation of LES for one of the high-order CFD codes, namely the GFR (Glenn Flux Reconstruction) code that is being developed at NASA Glenn Research Center. Fourth-order LES were performed for the single-injector cooling flow configuration at blowing ratios of both 1.0 and 2.0, and a fifth-order LES was also performed with a blowing ratio of 1.0. The GFR simulations agree very well with the experiment mean quantities and reasonably well with the experiment turbulence quantities. The LES solutions from GFR and the other high-order CFD code, FDL3DI, agreed very closely for nearly every flow quantity examined, despite the fact that these two codes use completely different numerical methods, different grid geometries and domains, and different inflow boundary conditions. Finally, both LES show a significant accuracy improvement over RANS turbulence models for flows with large temperature gradients, where the standard gradient diffusion approximation is insufficient for temperature predictions.