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Release of drops from a human body has been the focus of many recent investigations because of the current COVID-19 pandemic. Indirect virus transmission from asymptomatic individuals has been proved to be one of the major infectious routes and difficult to quantify, detect, and mitigate. We show in this work a detailed and novel numerical investigation of drops released during vocalization from a thermal manikin using a large eddy simulation coupled with Lagrangian tracking of drops. The vocalization experiment was modeled using existing data from the literature for modeling exhaled airflow, emission rate, and size distribution. Particular focus was on the definition of the boundary conditions for the exhalation process. Turbulence was compared with experimental data for the near mouth region for 75 exhalation breathing cycles and showed the sensitivity of different modeling assumptions at the mouth inlet. The results provide insights of special interest for understanding drop dynamics in speech-like exhalation modes, modeling the mouth inlet boundary conditions, and providing data for verifying other more simplified models.

In large eddy simulation (LES), we generally use information of the grid width in representing a filter width (Δ) to evaluate a subgrid scale (SGS) model. In practical applications, however, the grid widths are largely different in the streamwise and cross-streamwise directions, resulting in grid cells having high aspect ratios. In such a case, we often adopt the cube root of the grid-cell volume for the filter width; i.e., Δ=(ΔxΔyΔz)1/3 in the Cartesian grid system. Although this has been regarded as a standard way to determine the filter width, its superiority over other strategies, such as using the maximum width in all directions (i.e., Δ=max(Δx,Δy,Δz) ), has not always been made clear. In this paper, to investigate the effect of the definition of a filter width on the prediction accuracy of an SGS model, we report on a priori tests of several SGS models using highly resolved LES data of a backward-facing step flow. We focus particularly on the model performance in the shear layer downstream of a step, where there exists a strong velocity gradient and the aspect ratio of a grid cell is high despite the region being far from wall surfaces. This investigation enables us to distinguish the effect of the grid aspect ratio from that of near-wall damping. We make the important finding that the cube root of a grid-cell volume is not always appropriate for the filter width. To evaluate an SGS model properly, the effect of a grid width in one direction much smaller than in other directions must be excluded in determining the filter width. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The purpose of this article is to show the improvement of the mixture of a turbulent jet diffusion flame of methane by means of linear quadratic regulator control. The model is based on low Mach and high Damkohler numbers. Large eddy simulation is used to simulate a turbulent flow with the Smagorinsky submodel for turbulent viscosity. The control employs a pair of actuators that act transversally to the flow direction on the walls of the burner. They consist of rectangular openings added along the depth of the duct. Numerical tests were performed by changing the position of one of these actuators. The results show that the controllers alter the jet diffusion flame, generating vortices of different sizes and dispersion patterns, which quickly leads to highly complex flow patterns.

In this work, large-eddy simulations (LESs) are conducted for a multiple-injection flame in a diesel engine environment using an unsteady flamelet/progress variable (UFPV) approach in which differential diffusion is considered. The suitability of the UFPV tabulation approach is first evaluated through a priori analyses using the state-of-the-art direct numerical simulation (DNS) dataset. Both the instantaneous data and the conditional values for the major and minor species' mass fractions are compared between the UFPV and the DNS. The comparisons show that the proposed UFPV tabulation approach can give good predictions for the multiple-injection flame at different injection phases. While the gas temperature and major species mass fractions can be accurately predicted with or without differential diffusion being considered in the UFPV flamelet library, the prediction accuracy for the highly diffusive species (e.g., hydrogen) in the main injection phase can be noticeably improved when differential diffusion is taken into account. The fully coupled LES/UFPV simulations show that the overall structure of the multiple-injection flame can be predicted, and the conditional thermo-chemical values are close to the filtered DNS dataset. The reasons for the remaining discrepancies found in the a priori analyses and the a posteriori simulations using the UFPV approach are analyzed.

In the framework of wall-modeled large-eddy simulation (WMLES), the problem of combining sub-grid scale (SGS) models with the standard wall law is commonly acknowledged and expressed through multiple undesired near-wall behaviors. In this work, it is first observed that the static Smagorinsky model predicts efficiently the wall shear stress in a wall-modeled context, while more advanced static models like wall-adapting local eddy (WALE) viscosity or Sigma with proper cubic damping fail. It is, however, known that Smagorinsky is overall too dissipative in the bulk flow and in purely sheared flows, whereas the two other models are better suited for near-wall flows. The observed difficulty comes from the fact that the SGS model relies on the filtered velocity gradient tensor that necessarily comes with large errors in the near-wall region in the context of WMLES. Since the first off-wall node is usually located in the turbulent zone of the boundary layer, the turbulent structures within the first cell are neither resolved by the grid nor represented by the SGS model, which results in a lack of turbulent activity. In order to account for these subgrid turbulent structures, a stochastic forcing method derived from Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) turbulence models is proposed and applied to the velocity gradients to better estimate the near-wall turbulent viscosity while providing the missing turbulent activity usually resulting from the WMLES approach. Based on such corrections, it is shown that the model significantly improves the wall shear stress prediction when used with the WALE and Sigma models.

The paper examines the combined effects of several interacting thermo-acoustic and hydrodynamic instability mechanisms that are known to influence self-excited combustion instabilities often encountered in the late design stages of modern low-emission gas turbine combustors. A compressible large eddy simulation approach is presented, comprising the flame burning regime independent, modeled probability density function evolution equation/stochastic fields solution method. The approach is subsequently applied to the PRECCINSTA (PREDiction and Control of Combustion INSTAbilities) model combustor and successfully captures a fully self-excited limit-cycle oscillation without external forcing. The predicted frequency and amplitude of the dominant thermo-acoustic mode and its first harmonic are shown to be in excellent agreement with available experimental data. Analysis of the phase-resolved and phase- averaged fields leads to a detailed description of the superimposed mass flow rate and equivalence ratio fluctuations underlying the governing feedback loop. The prevailing thermo-acoustic cycle features regular flame liftoff and flashback events in combination with a flame angle oscillation, as well as multiple hydrodynamic phenomena, i.e., toroidal vortex shedding and a precessing vortex core. The periodic excitation and suppression of these hydrodynamic phenomena is confirmed via spectral proper orthogonal decomposition and found to be controlled by an oscillation of the instantaneous swirl number. Their local impact on the heat release rate, which is predominantly modulated by flame-vortex roll- up and enhanced mixing of fuel and oxidizer, is further described and investigated. Finally, the temporal relationship between the flame “surface area,” flame-averaged mixture fraction, and global heat release rate is shown to be directly correlated.

Pseudo-spectral large eddy simulation (LES) calculations of high-magnetic Reynolds number (Rem) incompressible magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence are carried out for two initial conditions, namely, the non-helical Orszag–Tang vortex and the strongly helical Arnold–Beltrami–Childress (ABC) flows using two eddy-viscosity-based sub-grid scale (SGS) approaches: the cross-helicity (CH) and dynamic Smagorinsky (DS) models. Validation is conducted through comparisons of 1923 LES calculations with in-house 5123 direct numerical simulations (DNS) at Reynolds number, Re=Rem=800. The results show that the CH model performs better than the DS model. The performance of the SGS models at higher Re is further evaluated by carrying out 3843 LES calculations at Re=Rem=7500. Various quantities including turbulent kinetic energy, turbulent magnetic energy, cross-helicity, helicity, vorticity structures, cosine of angle between velocity and magnetic field, cosine of angle between velocity and vorticity field, kinetic and magnetic energy spectra, and energy fluxes are analyzed to understand the capability of the two LES models in predicting the evolution of MHD turbulence. The higher Reynolds number flow shows a delay in the maximum dissipation with increased transfer of energy toward small scales, resulting in a −5/3 Kolmogorov inertial sub-range scaling. In addition, the effect of Reynolds number on the alignment between velocity and magnetic field, and the energy transfer between kinetic and magnetic energy, is studied. With the ABC flow having strong helicity and zero cross-helicity at low and high Reynolds numbers, a strong dynamo effect is also observed using the LES models, which is consistent with previous DNS.

With the aid of a large eddy simulation (LES) model of a turbulent jet, we study the modeling of jet noise based on wavepackets by considering a certain degree of nonlinearity. Linear parabolized stability equations (PSEs) are utilized to solve the spatial evolution of wavepackets with the base flow obtained from the LES. The spectral proper orthogonal decomposition (SPOD) is performed to extract the most energetic coherent structures. Since the mean flow includes partial nonlinearity, improved agreement of hydrodynamic pressure fields between SPOD-filtered results and linear-PSE solutions is obtained in the near field. Deviations only occur when the coherent structures decay. Although linear-PSE solutions represent the near-field hydrodynamics reasonably, the far-field noise propagated from this linear model shows a large deviation from the LES results. Then, a small external harmonic forcing is added to the right-hand side of the PSE to mimic the effects of nonlinearity due to incoherent fluctuations on the late evolution of near-field wavepackets, and an adjoint approach is further utilized to search for optimal forcing distribution. Optimized forcing is mainly located near the critical layer; enhances the energy of wavepackets; and raises the sound radiation efficiency, but to a limited extent. Meanwhile, the coherence-matched PSE wavepacket is proposed to incorporate the coherence decay of wavepackets calculated based on LES. An improved agreement in far-field sound pressure levels for low-frequency components is achieved. In short, these findings all prove the vital role of nonlinearity in jet noise modeling, and the current modeling approaches have made some progress. However, a more physics-based and generalized nonlinear model is still required.

A low-Mach, unstructured, large-eddy-simulation-based, unsteady flamelet approach with a generalized heat loss combustion methodology (including soot generation and consumption mechanisms) is deployed to support a large-scale, quiescent, 5-m JP-8 pool fire validation study. The quiescent pool fire validation study deploys solution sensitivity procedures, i.e., the effect of mesh and time step refinement on capturing key fire dynamics such as fingering and puffing, as mesh resolutions approach O(1) cm. A novel design-order, discrete-ordinate-method discretization methodology is established by use of an analytical thermal/participating media radiation solution on both low-order hexahedral and tetrahedral mesh topologies in addition to quadratic hexahedral elements. The coupling between heat losses and the flamelet thermochemical state is achieved by augmenting the unsteady flamelet equation set with a heat loss source term. Soot and radiation source terms are determined using flamelet approaches for the full range of heat losses experienced in fire applications including radiative extinction. The proposed modeling and simulation paradigm are validated using pool surface radiative heat flux, maximum centerline temperature location, and puffing frequency data, all of which are predicted within 10% accuracy. Simulations demonstrate that under-resolved meshes predict an overly conservative radiative heat flux magnitude with improved comparisons as compared to a previously deployed hybrid Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes/eddy dissipation concept-based methodology.

Flows around an axisymmetric body of revolution at a zero yaw angle were studied using a hybrid Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS)/large eddy simulation (LES) approach, which employed a full Reynolds stress model (RSM) in the RANS branch with the aim of accounting for the Reynolds stress anisotropy, streamline curvature, and flow separations in the boundary layer. The SUBOFF model without appendages was applied to conduct the simulations, and the Reynolds number based on the free-stream velocity and the length of the body is ReL=1.2×106. The results, including time-averaged Cp, Cf, and velocity statistics, were compared with the experimental data and wall-resolved LES results available in the literature, and the overall agreement of the comparisons was satisfactory. To assess the performance of the RSM-based hybrid RANS/LES approach, we carried out shear-stress transport-based hybrid RANS/LES approach simulations under identical free-stream conditions for comparison. The sensitivity of the hybrid RANS/LES approach to the RANS models was observed for separated flow with surface curvature and adverse pressure gradient-induced separation. The RSM-based hybrid RANS/LES approach was found to provide a better prediction for the unsteady flows near the stern. That is because the effects of the streamline curvature and the strong interactions between individual stresses can be captured by the exact production terms in the RSM-based hybrid RANS/LES approach. These effects are important for predicting the development of turbulent boundary layers along the stern.

This paper presents a systematic investigation of large eddy simulation (LES) and subgrid scale (SGS) modeling with application to transcritical and supercritical turbulent mixing and combustion. There remains uncertainty about the validity of extending the LES formalism developed for low-pressure, ideal-gas flows to simulations of high-pressure real-fluid flows. To address this concern, we reexamine the LES theoretical framework and the underlying assumptions in the context of real-fluid mixing and combustion. Two-dimensional direct numerical simulations of nonreacting and reacting mixing layers of gaseous methane and liquid oxygen in the thermodynamically transcritical and supercritical fluid regimes are performed. The computed results are used to evaluate the exact terms in the LES governing equations and associated SGS models. Order of magnitude analysis of the exact filtered and subgrid terms in the LES equations and a priori analysis of the simplifications are performed at different filter widths. It is shown that several of these approximations do not hold for supercritical turbulent mixing. Subgrid scale terms, which are neglected in the LES framework for ideal-gas flows, become significant in magnitude compared to the other leading terms in the governing equations. In particular, the subgrid term arising from the filtering of the real-fluid equation of state is shown to be important.

We analyze the flow of a planar gas jet impinging on a thin film dragged by a vertical moving wall. In the coating industry, this configuration is known as jet wiping, a process in which impinging jets control the thickness of liquid coatings on flat plates withdrawn vertically from a coating bath. We present three-dimensional (3D) two-phase flow simulations combining large eddy simulation (LES) and volume of fluid techniques. Three wiping configurations are simulated and the results are validated with experimental data from previous works. Multiscale modal analysis is used to analyze the dynamic interaction between the gas flow and the liquid film. In particular, we present a combination of multiscale Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (mPOD) and correlation analysis. The mPOD is used to identify the dominant traveling wave pattern in the liquid film flow, and the temporal structures are used to determine the most correlated flow features in the gas jet. This allows for revealing a two-dimensional mechanism for wave formation in the liquid coat. Finally, we use the numerical results to analyze the validity of some of the critical assumptions underpinning the derivation of integral film models of jet wiping.

A novel muscle-driven method (MDM) with its corresponding Compute Unified Device Architecture parallel computational code is newly developed to mimic shortening and lengthening of muscles, in a fish-like swimming body, which causes the body flapping in the transversal direction and create a thrust force to propel the body to cruise in the longitudinal direction. In this method, the fish body is discretized as mass points connected by elastic springs and muscle deformation is critically realized by using a constraint algorithm, called RATTLE, to control relative deformation distances between neighboring mass points of the muscles, while turbulent fluids are treated by a multi-relaxation time lattice Boltzmann method with a large eddy simulation. A validation for the MDM is extensively conducted by comparing our simulation results with the existing experimental and theoretical results. Subsequently, the frequency, amplitude, and wavelength of lengthening of muscles and the stiffness and mass density of the body are systematically varied at different levels and their effects on flapping and cruising motion and flow structures are studied at different Reynolds numbers.

Turbulent mixing and combustion in non-premixed and premixed colorless distributed combustion (CDC) systems are simulated with a hybrid large-eddy simulation/filtered mass density function (LES/FMDF) model. The CDC systems have low (NOx and hydrocarbon) emissions, stable combustion, and low-pressure drop and noise. They are also characterized by distributed combustion as opposed to thin flamelets, seen in ordinary combustion systems. The two parts of hybrid LES/FMDF model, i.e., the Eulerian gas dynamics finite-difference solver and the Lagrangian stochastic FMDF solver are shown to be fully consistent and computationally robust and accurate for both nonreacting and reacting flows. The LES/FMDF results are also shown to be in good agreement with the available experimental data. The numerical results show that the variation in inflow air temperature or the air to fuel jet momentum ratio has a significant effect on the turbulent flow, mixing, and combustion. They also indicate the importance of the flow configuration in the CDC combustors.

International audience; Simulating rotating geometries in fluid flows for industrial applications remains a challenging task for general fluid solvers and in particular for the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) due to inherent stability and accuracy problems. This work proposes an original method based on the widely used overset grids (or Chimera grids) while being integrated with a recent and optimized LBM collision operator, the hybrid recursive regularized model (HRR). The overset grids are used to actualize the rotating geometries where both the rotating and fixed meshes exist simultaneously. In the rotating mesh, the fictitious forces generated from its non-inertial rotating reference frame are taken into account by using a second order discrete forcing term. The fixed and rotating grids communicate with each other through the interpolation of the macroscopic variables. Meanwhile, the HRR collision model is selected to enhance the stability and accuracy properties of the LBM simulations by filtering out redundant higher order non-equilibrium tensors. The robustness of the overset HRR algorithm is assessed on different configurations, undergoing mid-to-high Reynolds number flows, and the method successfully demonstrates its robustness while exhibiting the second order accuracy.

International audience; Algebraic explicit wall models covering the entire inner region of the turbulent boundary layer are proposed to reduce the computational effort for large eddy simulation of wall-bounded turbulent flows. The proposed formulas are given in closed forms with either logarithmicor power-function-based laws of the wall, allowing straightforward evaluation of the friction velocity on near wall grids independent of their locations in the turbulent boundary layer. The performance of the proposed models is demonstrated by the wall modeled large eddy simulation of a turbulent plane channel flow.

We consider Lagrangian modeling of heavy particle motion in inhomogeneous turbulence. The dynamics of point particles is one-way coupled to the large-eddy simulation (LES) of fluid flow. To account for the effect of non-resolved (subgrid) flow scales on particle motion, we propose a model for the fluid velocity along the particle trajectories. The model, based on a stochastic diffusion process, accounts for turbulence anisotropy and utilizes the statistical estimates of subgrid quantities: the velocity components (the r.m.s. and covariance) and the Lagrangian time scales. The turbulent channel flow case is taken for validation. First, we discuss the outcome of an a priori LES study. Then, the proposed subgrid dispersion model is tested in a true LES computation. The resulting velocity statistics, particle concentration profiles, and the deposition velocity are compared against available reference data from direct numerical simulations.

Multispecies mixing processes play an important role in many engineering, biological, and environmental applications. Since simulating mixing flows can be useful to understand its physics and to study industrial issues, this work aims to develop the basis of a methodology able to simulate the physics of multiple-species mixing flows, using a hybrid large eddy simulation/Lagrangian filtered density function (FDF) method on an adaptive, block-structured mesh. A computational model of notional particles transport on a distributed processing environment is built using a parallel Lagrangian map. This map connects the Lagrangian information with the Eulerian framework of the in-house code MFSim, in which transport equations are solved. The Lagrangian composition FDF method, through the Monte Carlo technique, performs algebraic calculations over an ensemble of notional particles and provides composition fields statistically equivalent to those obtained by finite volume numerical solution of partial differential equations. Finally, to maintain high accuracy in the system of stochastic differential equations solver when an adaptive mesh refinement environment is used, a methodology for ensuring mass conservation is developed to preserve at least the statistical moments up to order two, even in the case of annihilation or cloning of a large number of notional particles in one time step, ensuring the applicability of Lagrangian FDF methods in dynamically adaptive grid refinement.

This study deals with thermal large-eddy simulation (T-LES) of anisothermal turbulent channel flow in the working conditions of solar receivers used in concentrated solar power towers. The flow is characterized by high-temperature levels and strong heat fluxes. The hot and cold friction Reynolds numbers of the simulations are, respectively, 630 and 970. The Navier–Stokes equations are solved under the low-Mach number approximation and the thermal dilatation is taken into account. The momentum convection and the density–velocity correlation subgrid terms are modeled. Functional, structural, and mixed subgrid-scale models are investigated. A tensorial version of the classical anisotropic minimum-dissipation (AMD) model is studied and produces good results. A Quick scheme and a second-order-centered scheme are tested for the discretization of the mass convection term. First, a global assessment of 22 large-eddy simulations is proposed, then six are selected for a careful analysis including profiles of mean quantities and fluctuation values as well as a comparison of instantaneous fields. Probability density functions of wall heat fluxes are plotted. The results point out that T-LESs performed with the Quick scheme tend to underestimate the wall heat flux whereas the second-order-centered scheme significantly improves its estimation. T-LESs tend to overestimate the peaks of velocity correlations. When regarding the dimensionless profiles of fluctuations, the tensorial AMD model provides better results than the other assessed models. For the heat flux estimation, the best agreement is found with the AMD model combined with the second-order-centered scheme.

The scalar–scalar-gradient filtered joint density function (FJDF) and its transport equation for large eddy simulation of turbulent combustion are studied experimentally. Measurements are performed in the fully developed region of an axisymmetric turbulent jet (with jet Reynolds number U j D j / ν = 40 000) using an array consisting of three X-wires and three resistance-wire temperature probes. Filtering in the cross-stream and streamwise directions is realized by using the array and by invoking Taylor's hypothesis, respectively. The FJDF and the terms in the transport equation are analyzed using their means conditional on the filtered scalar and the subgrid-scale (SGS) scalar variance. The FJDF is unimodal when the SGS scalar variance is small compared to its mean value. The scalar gradient depends weakly on the SGS scalar. For large SGS variance, the FJDF is bimodal and the gradient depends strongly on the SGS scalar; therefore, the often-invoked independence assumption is not valid. The SGS scalar under such a condition contains a diffusion layer structure and the SGS mixing is similar to the early stages of binary mixing. The isoscalar surface in the diffusion layer has a lower surface-to-volume ratio than that in a well-mixed scalar. The conditionally filtered diffusion of the scalar gradient has an S-shaped dependence on the scalar gradient, which is expected to be qualitatively different from that of a reactive scalar under fast chemistry conditions. However, because modeling is performed at a higher level and because the scalar–scalar-gradient FJDF contains the information about the scalar dissipation and the surface-to-volume ratio, the FJDF approach is expected to be more accurate than scalar filtered density function approaches and has the potential to model turbulent combustion over a wide range of Damkohler numbers.

This paper presents a numerical performance evaluation of the electrostatic rotary bell sprayer (ERBS) with a particular focus on droplet charge, electric field, and ambient conditions through the implementation of a high-voltage control-ring field pattern effect into the fully turbulent airflow and by including the atomized droplets discrete phase. The simulation shows that the inclusion of droplet charging and electric field coupling, with different parametric values, significantly impacts the atomized droplet distribution over the spray plume and the deposition rate. This analysis was conducted using a three-dimensional (3D) Eulerian–Lagrangian model to describe the two-phase spraying flow by extending the base OpenFOAM package. The procedure includes an unsteady compressible Navier–Stokes solver combined with a large Eddy simulation approach to model turbulence effects on the air flowfield. This is coupled to the spray dynamics by including droplet trajectory tracking, wall film dynamics, and electric field charge. The approach is further extended to include the evaporation phenomenon and the transport of its products. Compared to a conventional ERBS, herein, we provide an in-depth analysis of the fluid dynamic characteristics around the ERBS with a control-ring field pattern for vorticity, velocity, and electrical fields. The results indicate that the control-ring operation improves the performance and transfer efficiency of the ERBS, and it also helps to harmonize the direction of the charged paint droplets. For the first time, finding a balance between the effect of the inside bell cup surface and control-ring voltage and charged droplet has been conducted.

A turbulent channel flow at a Reynolds number of Re τ = 2000 is solved based on the spatially filtered Navier–Stokes equations using large eddy simulation and an in-house code. A nonequilibrium wall model is implemented to predict the flow in the wall layer based on the Reynolds-averaged approach. To mitigate the log-layer mismatch, which is often encountered in wall modeling, two temporal schemes are introduced to average the wall layer solution and to filter the flow information input to the wall layer. It is found that the time periods used for the time-averaging and temporal-filtering schemes affect the performance of the wall model. The results show that shorter time periods enable the wall model to respond to the flow structures in the outer layer and correctly predict the friction velocity. However, the prediction of the friction velocity also depends on the location of the matching point. Locating the matching point further from the wall results in better performance due to the compatibility of the subgrid scale model with the grid resolution further from the wall. The temporal-filtering scheme is used to remove nonessential high-frequency wavelengths that can disturb the functionality of wall modeling. Various combinations of the time-averaging and temporal-filtering time periods are investigated for different locations of the matching point. Overall, it is concluded that using a shorter period for time-averaging and a temporal-filtering period comparable to the turbulent diffusion timescale leads to improved results.

The combination of large eddy simulation (LES) and probability density function (PDF) methods is a general framework to model turbulent reactive flows. The coupled approach provides direct closures for the nonlinear subgrid source terms typical of chemically reacting flows. LES-PDF methods have a wide range of applicability and they are started to be used in high-speed flows with strong compressibility effects. However, PDF formulations are more complex in compressible flows, where mechanical and thermodynamic contributions are more coupled. The paper presents a novel PDF framework that uses a full thermodynamic closure (scalar-energy-density-velocity) with the Eulerian Monte Carlo stochastic field approach. The work uses simple closures for the subgrid terms using the advantages of the Eulerian formulation and recasts the stochastic equations in a pseudoconservative form. The resultant formulation is applied to three canonical compressible flows: turbulent shock-tubes, compressible homogeneous turbulence, and a reactive free-moving premixed flame. All cases show large density and pressure fluctuations. The effects of underlying numerical schemes and PDF closures to represent compressible effects are investigated along with the statistical convergence of the method.

Effects of combustion heat release on turbulent velocity and scalar statistics are investigated as a function of the Damkohler number using three direct numerical simulation databases of spatially developing turbulent premixed jet flames. At low Karlovitz numbers, where heat-release effects dominate turbulent kinetic energy budgets, their relative significance scales with the integral Damkohler number in a priori Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) statistics and the filter Damkohler number in Large Eddy Simulation (LES). The Damkohler-number scaling of counter-gradient transport in this regime follows theoretical arguments underpinning linear-algebraic turbulence models, which explains their efficacy at low Karlovitz numbers. Conversely, at moderate Karlovitz numbers, LES subfilter turbulence is more strongly influenced by heat-release effects than the analogous large-scale RANS turbulence. This is consistent with the notion of an “active cascade,” which postulates that heat-release-induced volumetric expansion competes on intermediate scales with classical forward-cascade energy transfer. LES exposes these dynamics as dominant subfilter-scale physics, unlike in RANS, where they are secondary to the effects of mean-shear production at the large scales. The significance of subfilter-scale interactions is promoted by the LES filter itself, which modifies the RANS spectral basis by incorporating local flame-normal averaging. This is highlighted by comparing LES fields obtained using a 3D filter to those using a modified 2D filter, excluding the flame-normal direction, which significantly reduces the apparent influence of heat-release effects but is not representative of LES in practice. The subfilter modeling challenges posed by these distinctions at moderate Karlovitz numbers and order-unity Damkohler numbers remain to be understood.

International audience; This letter reports the first large eddy simulation of a turbulent flame using a Lattice-Boltzmann model. To that end, simulation of a bluff-body stabilized propane-air flame is carried out, showing an agreement similar to those available in the literature. Computational costs are also reported, indicating that Lattice-Boltzmann modelling of reactive flows is competitive, with around 1000cpuh required to simulate one residence time in the 1,5m burner.

This study reproduced the main flow features around a square-section building model via a spectral proper orthogonal decomposition (SPOD) analysis, performed on the three-dimensional velocity field obtained by large eddy simulation. Using this single technique, we presented a spectrum view of the turbulent structures around the square-section cylinder, quantitatively revealing the primary frequency and relative intensity of all the structures at once. The identified features, including the low-frequency modes related to the fluctuation of the incoming flow, primary wake vortex shedding, tip and base vortices, and primary side vortex shedding, were extracted from the single case. An intuitive estimation of the energy percentage for each flow feature was also presented, which was considered a good reference for the comparison of the intensity between features. In addition, the local-space SPOD spectrum was defined to analyze the composition of the kinetic energy within some local parts of the sampling field. It showed the different composition of the fluctuation on the front, side, and back of the prism.

The benchmarking case of flow past a circular cylinder at the Reynolds number (Re) of 3900 is computed with two open-source codes, OpenFOAM and Nektar++, which are based on the conventional finite volume method (FVM) and the high-order spectral/hp element method, respectively. By using the Nektar++ model, mesh convergence for the case Re = 3900 is demonstrated (perhaps for the first time) through a systematic mesh dependence study, which includes separate examinations of the spanwise domain length (Lz/D), spanwise resolution, and the resolution in the plane perpendicular to the spanwise direction. The computational efficiencies for the Nektar++ and OpenFOAM approaches are then compared. This benchmarking study adds value to the broad Nektar++ and OpenFOAM communities and to the numerical modeling of bluff-body flows in general. Based on the Nektar++ approach, the computations are then generalized to a range of Re = 400–3900. It is found that Lz/D = 3 is adequate for Re = 2500–3900, while an increased Lz/D = 6 is recommended for Re = 400–2000. Based on the present high-fidelity numerical data, the physical mechanisms for the variations in the wake recirculation length and the hydrodynamic forces and pressure on the cylinder with Re are explored. In particular, the physics behind the inverse correlation between the root mean square lift coefficient (CL′) and the wake recirculation length, which includes a significant decrease in CL′ over Re = 270–1500, is highlighted.

Direct numerical simulations of temporally developing, three-dimensional, CH4/CO2, CH4/O2, and CO2/O2 mixing layers are conducted at a supercritical pressure of 300 atm. To effectively model the supercritical regime, the employed formulation includes the compressible form of the governing equations, the cubic Peng–Robinson equation of state and a generalized formulation for heat and mass flux vectors derived from non-equilibrium thermodynamics and fluctuation theory. A linear inviscid stability analysis is also performed for each case, to determine its most unstable wavelength. Flow visualizations reveal the presence of high density gradient magnitude regions for all three mixing layers, with conditional averages indicating increased presence of heavier fluid species within these regions. No significant departures are observed from perfect gas behavior, with compressibility factors very close to unity for all three mixing cases. Applicability of presumed probability density function methods is examined for the three supercritical mixing layers. An a priori analysis is also conducted to investigate various simplifying assumptions employed in modeling various subgrid scale (SGS) flux models. Two additional terms are identified in the large eddy simulation equations, the gradient of SGS contribution of pressure in the momentum equation and the gradient of SGS contribution of heat flux in energy equation, whose magnitudes are similar and comparable with their respective resolved terms. The performance of the scale similarity model to represent these additional terms is investigated. Finally, the performance of Smagorinsky, gradient, and scale similarity models is also investigated.

This work proposes a chemical mechanism tabulation method using artificial neural networks (ANNs) for turbulent combustion simulations. The method is employed here in the context of the Large-Eddy Simulation (LES)–Probability Density Function (PDF) approach and the method of stochastic fields for numerical solution, but can also be employed in other methods featuring real-time integration of chemical kinetics. The focus of the paper is on exploring an ANN architecture aiming at improved generalization, which uses a single multilayer perceptron (MLP) for each species over the entire training dataset. This method is shown to outperform previous approaches which take advantage of specialization by clustering the composition space using the Self-Organizing Map (SOM). The ANN training data are generated using the canonical combustion problem of igniting/extinguishing one-dimensional laminar flamelets with a detailed methane combustion mechanism, before being augmented with randomly generated data to produce a hybrid random/flamelet dataset with improved composition space coverage. The ANNs generated in this study are applied to the LES of a turbulent non-premixed CH4/air flame, Sydney flame L. The transported PDF approach is used for reaction source term closure, while numerical solution is obtained using the method of stochastic fields. Very good agreement is observed between direct integration (DI) and the ANNs, meaning that the ANNs can successfully replace the integration of chemical kinetics. The time taken for the reaction source computation is reduced 18-fold, which means that LES–PDF simulations with comprehensive mechanisms can be performed on modest computing resources.

There is a well developed spectrum of computational methods for turbulent flows: modeling methods such as Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) and probability density function (PDF) methods, and resolving methods such as large eddy simulation (LES) and filtered density function (FDF) methods. However, the applicability of RANS/PDF methods is limited to flows that do not essentially require the inclusion of resolved motion, and LES/FDF methods are well applicable if resolution criteria can be satisfied [which is often infeasible for very high Reynolds number (Re) wall-bounded turbulent flows]. A highly attractive approach to overcome these problems is the design of hybrid RANS–LES methods, which can be used with varying amounts of resolved and modeled motions. However, this approach faces the problem to ensure communication and balancing of resolved and modeled motions. A well working solution to this problem was presented recently for non-homogeneous flows with respect to velocity two-equation eddy viscosity turbulence models. Exact analytical results regarding the extension of these methods to velocity and passive scalar PDF/FDF methods and their implied RANS/LES equations are presented here. The latter matters with respect to the justification of the theoretical basis of new hybrid methods (realizability) and the availability of a hierarchy of simple and advanced simulation methods (including passive scalar transport). Based on the continuous mode redistribution mechanism, the new simulation methods are capable of providing reliable predictions of very high Re turbulent flows, which cannot be accomplished by using existing techniques.

The large eddy simulation/probability density function (LES/PDF) method is applied to a turbulent swirling stratified flame series to systematically investigate its performance for accurate prediction of effects of stratification on turbulent flames under swirling conditions. The Cambridge/Sandia turbulent stratified flame series is selected as a target flame series. An augmented reduced mechanism is used for the methane/air combustion. The chemical calculations are accelerated by using the in situ adaptive tabulation method. The differential diffusion and heat loss from the bluff-body surface are taken into account in the simulations. The effect of stratification in fuel concentration is studied by increasing the stratification progressively from the pure premixed case to moderately and highly stratified cases. The performance of the LES/PDF modeling is evaluated by comparing the numerical results with the experimental data. The computed mean and rms of velocity, temperature, equivalence ratio, and mass fractions of species are found to be in good agreement with the measurements for all three conditions. Scatter plots and conditional means of mole fractions of species and temperature are presented and found to be in overall good consistency with those obtained from the experimental measurements. The recirculation zones are found to be about five times longer than those obtained under the non-swirling conditions. A low-equivalence-ratio high-temperature region near the bluff body is not captured in the computation, which is attributed to the insufficient entrainment of downstream mixtures into the recirculation zone. The parametric studies show that the differential diffusion has a minor effect on the mean and rms quantities, while the heat loss has a considerable effect on temperature and CO profiles close to the bluff body.

We revisit the grid-point requirement estimates in Choi and Moin [Phys. Fluid, 24, 011702 (2012)] and establish more general grid-point requirements for direct numerical simulations (DNS) and large-eddy simulations (LES) of a spatially developing turbulent boundary layer. We show that, by allowing the local grid spacing to scale with the local Kolmogorov length scale, the grid-point requirement for DNS of a spatially developing turbulent boundary layer is $N\sim Re_{L_x}^{2.05}$ rather than $N\sim Re_{L_x}^{2.64}$ as suggested by Choi and Moin, where $N$ is the number of grid points and $L_x$ is the length of the plate. In addition to the grid-point requirement, we estimate the time-step requirement for DNS and LES. We show that, for a code that treats the convective term explicitly, the time steps required to get converged statistics are $N_t\sim Re_{L_x}/Re_{x_0}^{6/7}$ for wall-modeled LES and $N_t\sim Re_{L_x}/Re_{x_0}^{1/7}$ for wall-resolved LES and DNS (with different prefactors), where $Re_{x_0}$ is the inlet Reynolds number. The grid-point and time-step requirement estimates allow us to estimate the overall cost of DNS and LES. According to present estimates, the costs of DNS, wall-resolved LES and wall-modeled LES scale as $Re_{L_x}^{2.91}$, $Re_{L_x}^{2.72}$, and $Re_{L_x}^{1.14}$., Comment: 11 pages, 4 figures

This paper studies the coherent structures found in an annular swirling jet flow undergoing vortex breakdown with control parameters, the Reynolds number Re = 8500 and the swirl number Sw = 0.38. The flow field is simulated using the large eddy simulation method with a dynamic k model. The first- and second-order statistics of the velocity fields are compared to tomographic particle image velocimetry measurements of the same flow configuration to validate the numerical simulation. The fast Fourier transform of the sampled velocity and pressure signals indicates a precessing vortex core with a frequency of 22 Hz. This frequency is in line with the one detected by spectral proper orthogonal decomposition, which is utilized to identify the coherent structures in the near-field region of the swirling flow in the present work. In detail, apart from the single helical structure usually found in swirling flows, a double helix, rarely observed in turbulent swirling jets, is also identified. This structure is not a second-order harmonic mode of the single one, as shown by statistical analysis of the mode temporal coefficients. Moreover, the calculation of energy production shows that this coherent precessing motion extracts energy from the mean flow field in the wake behind the bluff-body and in the breakup region of the vortex.

Maintaining stability remains a crucial issue for the safety of underwater vehicles, especially during high-speed navigation where flow cavitation may occur. Cavitators are small protrusions on the hydrofoil surface, which can be used to control the patterns of flow cavitation. In this study, we investigate the effect of cavitators on supercavitating flow and hydrodynamic forces for high-speed hydrofoil. The volume of fluid method and the large eddy simulation turbulence model with the Kunz cavitation model are used in the simulations in order to accurately capture the interface between two phases (water and vapor) and the region of flow supercavitation. To validate the numerical method, the time-averaged simulated results of the supercavitating flow over a wedge-shaped hydrofoil are compared and validated against the experimental data by Kermeen (“Experimental investigations of three-dimensional effects on cavitating hydrofoils,” Technical Report No. 47-14, Engineering Division of the California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA, 1960). Then, the numerical method is used to simulate the supercavitating flow of two-dimensional and three-dimensional cases with and without the cavitator placed on the lower side of the hydrofoil. The simulations were conducted for the cavitator located at the 1/32, 1/16, 1/8, and 1/4 chord of the hydrofoil at various angles of attack 1°–12° and cavitation numbers at 0.1, 0.2, and 0.4. A detailed analysis is made to examine the relations between cavitation pattern, hydrodynamic forces, and cavitator placement location. Compared to the cases without the cavitator, the supercavitating flow over the hydrofoils controlled by the cavitator demonstrates a significant difference in lift, whereas the drag does not change much. The changes in lift are closely related to the cavitator location. These findings can serve as a good guidance on how to improve the hydrodynamic performance and stability condition of a high-speed hydrofoil/wing using the cavitator.

Based on recent work by Guo et al. [“An efficient lattice Boltzmann method for compressible aerodynamics on D3Q19 lattice,” J. Comput. Phys. 418, 109570 (2020)], an improved thermal hybrid recursive regularized lattice Boltzmann model (iHRR-ρ) on a regular lattice is developed for two- and three-dimensional compressible laminar and turbulent flows. To enhance the numerical stability in a broad range of Courant–Friedrichs–Lewy numbers and in under-resolved simulations, a new equilibrium density distribution function is proposed to enlarge its positivity region in the Mach–temperature plane. An embedded hybridizing procedure is introduced in the quasi-symmetry correction terms, which allow for a decoupled treatment of unphysical modes and physical under-resolved turbulent scales on coarse grids. To handle compressible turbulent flows, the under-resolved scales are modeled using the original hybrid recursive regularized collision model given by Jacob et al. [“A new hybrid recursive regularised Bhatnagar–Gross–Krook collision model for Lattice Boltzmann method-based large eddy simulation,” J. Turbul. 19, 1051–1076 (2018)] equipped with Vreman’s subgrid model for the large-eddy simulation. The validity and accuracy of the present method for laminar and turbulent compressible flows are assessed by considering six test cases: (I) viscous shock wave internal structure, (II) isentropic vortex convection in a supersonic regime, (III) non-isothermal acoustic pulse, (IV) vortex–shock wave interaction, (V) supersonic flow over NACA airfoil at Re = 10 000 and Ma = 1.5, and (VI) compressible Taylor–Green vortex at Ma = 0.29.

This paper presents a comprehensive study of the unsteady flow field in a new concept lean direct injection gas turbine burner, which aims at a clean and efficient combustion with application to sustainable aviation and pollution abatement. Large Eddy Simulation (LES) and planar particle image velocimetry are employed to capture the characteristics of the swirling flow issued from the multiple-jet swirler under both the confined and unconfined conditions. The results are compared, and good agreement shows the capability of LES in capturing the large-scale flow structures. The iso-contour of axial and swirl velocities shows that the swirling flow is featured by multiple jets. These jets interact with the central recirculation zone (CRZ) and reform it into a “starfish” shape. Under the effect of the confinement, the flow displays a larger spreading angle of the jets and an outer recirculation zone (ORZ). A distinctive connection between the CRZ and the ORZ is evidenced to occur through the channels between the multiple jets. The outward flow in the channels is identified to oscillate at a Strouhal number of 0.1. To characterize the evolution, the unsteady large-scale structures, proper orthogonal decomposition (POD), and spectra POD (SPOD) analyses are performed. It is found that a single helix and a double helix are manifestations of two independent global modes in the SPOD analysis. The former shares the same frequency with the outward flow, and the latter is solely affected by the confinement.

Self-excitation of acoustic resonance in axisymmetric cavities can lead to a complex flow–acoustic coupling, which may result in severe noise generation. In this work, a large eddy simulation is performed to model the different flow–sound coupling mechanisms during the self-excitation of various excitable acoustic modes in an axisymmetric shallow cavity configuration with an aspect ratio of L/d = 1 over the lock-in region. The compressible Navier–Stokes equations are solved at a resolution sufficient to capture the flow and the acoustic dynamics. The excitation of three acoustic modes of different aerodynamic characteristics over the range of the tested flow velocities was observed. These modes are a stationary diametral mode, a spinning diametral mode, and a longitudinal mode. The initiation and separation of vortices over the cavity mouth accompanying the self-excitation of each mode involve different dynamics. If two antisymmetric series of vortical crescents separate successively at the leading edge, a stationary acoustic mode is excited. The formation of a continuously rotating helical vortex, connecting the leading edge and the trailing edge, leads to the excitation of the diametral spinning mode. The excitation of the longitudinal mode is associated with symmetric rings of vortices. Complex patterns of flow velocities and Reynolds stresses in the circumferential direction are observed for the diametral modes but not for the longitudinal mode. In all cases, the excitation of acoustic resonance requires a synchronization of the vortex separation and impingement processes, which is necessary for efficient feedback to sustain the flow–sound coupling mechanism.

The Multiple Mapping Conditioning/Large Eddy Simulation (MMC-LES) model is extended for the first time to high-speed, compressible flow conditions and validated against non-reacting and reacting experimental data from a model supersonic combustor. The MMC-LES method solves the subgrid joint composition filtered density function through a Monte Carlo approach, and it permits a low-cost numerical implementation using a sparse distribution of stochastic Lagrangian particles. The sensitivity of results to the particle resolution is examined, and similar to past low-speed applications of MMC-LES, that sensitivity is found to be low. In comparison to the model equations for subsonic turbulent combustion conditions, the pressure work and viscous heating effects have been incorporated here to account for the effects of compressibility. As expected, the viscous heating effects are small for this flow case and can be ignored, while the pressure work is not negligible and makes a significant contribution at expansion fans and shock fronts where the magnitude of the pressure derivative term in non-reacting/reacting cases is as much as 23.8%/24.5% and 19.2%/18.6% of the stochastic particle standardized enthalpy, respectively. The MMC-LES predictions show good quantitative agreement with the available experimental data for the mean and root-mean-square of axial velocity, mean temperature, and wall pressure. Good qualitative comparison to the data is also observed for major flow characteristics, including location and size of shocks, expansion fans, and recirculation zone, and combustion characteristics such as flame lift-off distance. Although the effects of the pressure work on the mean flame lift-off distance are negligible, they have a significant influence on the predicted spatial fluctuations of the flame base.

The incompressible turbulent flow field of the slot impinging jet has been studied numerically at a Reynolds number of 7900 and d = 6w using large-eddy simulation with the wall adapting local eddy-viscosity subgrid-scale model for the angles of impingement 70° and 90°. The validity of the computation is confirmed by reasonable comparisons of the wall shear stress, pressure variation over the impingement plate, jet-centerline velocity, and second-order turbulent properties with past experimental and numerical results. The turbulent stress, turbulent length scales, and turbulent structure sizes are observed to be increased in the oblique impingement. The appearance of the oblate spheroid-shaped, three-dimensional isotropic, and prolate spheroid-shaped turbulence has been marked in the wall-jet region using the anisotropy invariant map. The power spectra of the fluctuating field maintain the −5/3 slope in the inertial subrange, which as expected becomes steeper in the dissipation range, as stated by Kolmogorov. Both positively skewed and negatively skewed fluctuations are seen in the flow field, and their probability density functions suggest that the fluctuation range increases in the case of oblique impingement. The involvement of various shearing and swirling structures has been investigated employing the proper orthogonal decomposition, the Q- function, and the λ2- function, where the isosurface of vorticity components is used to represent the direction of rotations.

We propose a cavity as an actuator to actuate the supersonic mixing layer downstream a thick splitter plate. The cavity-actuated case at Re = 1.73 × 105 is simulated using large eddy simulation. The forced dynamics is resolved by the cluster-based network model (CNM) from a probabilistic point of view. Introducing a cavity obtains a 50% increase in the growth rate of vorticity thickness. The recirculation region immediately downstream the trailing edge of the splitter plate is largely reduced, which contributes to the advanced and fast growth of the redeveloping mixing layer. The cavity oscillation induces three-dimensional features that are beneficial to the small-scale mixing. Spectral analysis reveals that the cavity-actuated flow field exhibits the phenomena of the strict frequency-lock and temporal mode-switching. The CNM successfully resolves the intermittent dynamics of the supersonic mixing layer using only ten centroids. The CNM’s outcomes reveal two flow regimes of the unforced case: the Kelvin–Helmholtz vortex and vortex pairing. The cavity oscillation significantly affects the flow patterns of the centroids, which exhibit flow structures closely associated with the wake mode and shear-layer mode of the cavity oscillations. The dynamics of the cavity-actuated case is tamed into a strictly periodic transition loop among ten clusters undergoing the cyclic motion of the cluster energy fluctuation from the maximum to the minimum. Each centroid of the cavity-actuated case transports much more turbulent kinetic energy than that of the unforced case. Overall, the cavity-actuated attractor gets a 3.27 times increase in the energy fluctuation.

[EN] As computational capabilities continue to grow, exploring the limits of computational fluid dynamics to capture complex and elusive phenomena, which are otherwise difficult to study by experimental techniques, is one of the main targets for the research community. This paper presents a detailed analysis of the physical processes that lead to combustion noise emissions in internal combustion engines. In particular, diesel combustion in a compression-ignition (CI) engine is studied in order to understand the singular behavior of the in-cylinder flow field responsible for the acoustic emissions. The main objective is, therefore, to improve the understanding of the phenomena involved in CI engine noise using large eddy simulations. Several visualization methods are employed to investigate the connection between combustion behavior and its effects on the pressure field. In addition, proper orthogonal decomposition is used to analyze the modal energy distribution among all the acoustic modes. The results show that the acoustic signature is fundamentally conditioned by the intensity of the premixed combustion rather than by the pressure oscillations generated by turbulent fluctuations in the flame surface established during the diffusion stage., The submitted manuscript was created partly by UChicago Argonne, LLC, Operator of Argonne National Laboratory. Argonne, a U.S. Department of Energy Office of Science laboratory, is operated under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. This research was partly funded by the U.S. DOE Office of Vehicle Technologies, Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy, under Contract No. DE-AC02-06CH11357. The authors wish to thank Gurpreet Singh and Michael Weismiller, program managers at the DOE, for their support. In addition, the authors would like to acknowledge the Laboratory Computing Resource Center (LCRC) at the Argonne National Laboratory for computing time on the Bebop cluster that was used in this research.

We perform the large-eddy simulation of the flow past a helicopter rotor to support the investigation of rotorcraft wake characteristics and decay mechanisms. A hybrid Lagrangian-Eulerian Vortex Particle-Mesh method is employed to simulate the wake development, with the blades modeled using immersed lifting lines. The validity of the numerical approach is first evaluated through a comparison of the rotor trim parameters with experimental results. Then, the rotor wake at low, medium and high advance ratios is simulated over up to 30 rotor diameters. The wake generation and roll-up are described (i) qualitatively using rotor polar plots and three-dimensional (3-D) vortex dynamics visualizations; (ii) quantitatively using classical integral diagnostics in cross-sections. The highly 3-D unsteady near wake transitions to a system dominated by two parallel vortices, over a distance that depends on the advance ratio. This process is accelerated by the multiple interactions between successive tip vortices, supporting the generation of self-induced turbulence, and uncovering a mechanism of vorticity alignment along the streamwise axis. The vortices in the far wake are compared to typical aircraft ones, and exhibit less compact cores and faster decaying energy. Finally, we illustrate the loss of time periodicity in the far wake using the power spectral density of the kinetic energy, and the backscattering of energy from high rotor harmonics to lower frequencies, as complementary evidence of the intense vortex interaction activity.