High-fidelity simulations in complex geometries: Towards better flow understanding and development of turbulence models

• Main Author: Ricardo Vinuesa
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2021-09-01
• Series: Results in Engineering
• Subjects: Computatioanl fluid dynamics; High-fidelity simulations; Turbulent flows; Spectral-element method; Geometrical complexity; Turbulence modelling
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2590123021000554

The present review shows a summary of current trends in high-fidelity simulations of turbulent flows in moderately complex geometries. These trends are put in the historical context of numerical simulations, starting with early weather predictions and continuing with seminal direct-numerical-simulation work. Here we discuss high-fidelity simulations conducted in a number of complex geometries, including ducts, pipes, wings and obstacles, and describe the potential of the spectral-element method (SEM) to carry out such simulations. Finally, we provide a number of future directions where novel data-driven methods can exploit the great wealth of high-quality turbulence data in the literature.