Direct numerical simulation of the turbulent flow around an airfoil using spectral/HP method

Since the accuracy of the widely used Reynolds Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) approach is limited simulating turbulent flow separation on airfoils, we applied a spectral/hp element method to predict the turbulent flow separation at an airfoil for an angle of attack of 12°. The spectral/hp approach allows to solve the incompressible Navier-Stokes equation with spectral accuracy on unstructured grids by means of Direct Numerical simulation (DNS). Here we present first results we obtained from DNS of the flow around a fx79-w151a airfoil section for a low Reynolds Number = 5000.