LES simulation of flow around a bluff body fitted with a splitter plate

A large-eddy simulation (LES) technique has been applied to the prediction of separated and reattaching flow past a two-dimensional body with a blunt trailing edge with or without vortex shedding. The LES method used is a conventional one with Smagorinsky eddy-viscosity model and the computational grid is small enough to be handled by workstation-level computers. The test flow is the bluff-body near wake with a vortex-shedding controlling splitter plate which has been studied experimentally by Bearman (J. Fluid Mech. 21 (1965) 241–255). The characteristics of this test flow change dramatically as the body geometry changes and is a very severe test case for a simulation method. The numerical computation with a moderately fine grid shows that the various flow properties including mean and turbulence quantities, as well as vortex shedding and its suppression are well reproduced.