A hybrid RANS-LES approach with delayed-DES and wall-modelled LES capabilities

A CFD strategy is proposed that combines delayed detached-eddy simulation (DDES) with an improved RANS-LES hybrid model aimed at wall modelling in LES (WMLES). The system ensures a different response depending on whether the simulation does or does not have inflow turbulent content. In the first case, it reduces to WMLES: most of the turbulence is resolved except near the wall. Empirical improvements to this model relative to the pure DES equations provide a great increase of the resolved turbulence activity near the wall and adjust the resolved logarithmic layer to the modelled one, thus resolving the issue of “log layer mismatch” which is common in DES and other WMLES methods. An essential new element here is a definition of the subgrid length-scale which depends not only on the grid spacings, but also on the wall distance. In the case without inflow turbulent content, the proposed model performs as DDES, i.e., it gives a pure RANS solution for attached flows and a DES-like solution for massively separated flows. The coordination of the two branches is carried out by a blending function. The promise of the model is supported by its satisfactory performance in all the three modes it was designed for, namely, in pure WMLES applications (channel flow in a wide Reynolds-number range and flow over a hydrofoil with trailing-edge separation), in a natural DDES application (an airfoil in deep stall), and in a flow where both branches of the model are active in different flow regions (a backward-facing-step flow).