Assessment of Wall Modeling With Adverse Pressure Gradient for High Reynolds Number Separated Flows

Abstract

This paper applies a recently developed approach for modeling turbulence near wall regions within a lattice Boltzmann solver, in combination with a Hybrid RANS/LES turbulence model, to study turbulent separated flows at high Reynolds numbers. To simulate unsteady detached flows on a non-body-fitted Cartesian grid, wall models are employed to estimate the effects of unresolved near-wall turbulence on the overall flow. The article presents the extension of an equilibrium power law wall model to handle adverse pressure gradients and its application in simulating external aerodynamic flows. Hybrid RANS/LES simulations are conducted for two challenging test cases: a 3D NACA-4412 airfoil near stall and a complex Ahmed body configuration. Comparison with a reference simulation involving resolved boundary layers and experimental data demonstrates the strong performance of the wall model, when considering adverse pressure gradients, in simulating turbulent boundary layers under various conditions, ranging from fully attached to mild to high adverse pressure gradients.