Numerical Study of the Influence of the Inlet Turbulence Length Scale on the Turbulent Boundary Layer

Abstract

In the past half century, large eddy simulations (LESs) have played an important role in turbulent flow simulation and improving the performance of computing technology. To generate a fully developed turbulent boundary layer in the channel domain using LES, suitable inflow conditions along with turbulent characteristics are required. This study aimed to clarify the effect of the integral length scale on the generation of turbulent boundary layers. To accomplish this, an artificially created boundary layer was imposed on the inlet section, which gradually evolved into a fully developed turbulent boundary layer flow inside the numerical domain. In this study, the synthetic inflow method, which is a commonly employed technique, was used by imposing the spatial and temporal correlation between two different points on the inlet section. In addition, we conducted parametric length scale studies on the inlet section and compared our results with existing data. The results showed that the larger length scales in the spanwise direction were not only effective in achieving the target shape of a fully developed turbulent boundary layer, but also developed it faster than the smaller length scales.

Keywords

• large eddy simulation
• synthetic inflow generator
• integral length scale
• channel flow
• turbulent boundary layer
• CFD