Implicit Large Eddy Simulations of a Large-Radius Leading Edge VFE-2 Delta Wing

Abstract

Wall-resolved higher-order implicit Large Eddy Simulations were carried out on a large-radius leading edge VFE-2 delta wing at a Reynolds number of 60,000 with the Flux Reconstruction approach of the GPU-accelerated solver PyFR. The results of fourth-order accurate spatial and temporal schemes without explicit turbulence modeling were compared to lower-order Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes methods with the Menter SST turbulence model. The results highlighted the excessive numerical dissipation introduced by lower-order RANS methods and their inability to accurately capture small-scale flow phenomena such as secondary and tertiary vortices. Analysis of the Reynolds stress components of the ILES solution provided a framework for tuning the parameters of Reynolds Stress Equation Models and showed that the isotropic assumption of closure models for RANS and Detached Eddy Simulation methods was ill-posed for the given problem. Underresolved ILES was performed at a Reynolds number of 600,000 and the results were shown along with RANS, but further sampling of the ILES flow field was required before the results can be compared.