BEM Based Solution of Turbulent Flow Over Periodic Hills With Heat Transfer

Detached turbulent flows are difficult to predict numerically and often serve as benchmark cases for developing new numerical schemes and new turbulent models. Turbulent flow over periodic hills is one such examples, since the flow exhibits separation and reattachment on a smoothly and/or sharp curved geometry, strong pressure gradients and fluctuation of the separation point in time. These cases have been chosen by many authors for testing different turbulence simulation approaches. When the bottom wall is heated, the complexity of the problem increased, since convective heat transfer is defined by small scale turbulent structures close to the wall. We developed a Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes and Large Eddy Simulation solver based on the velocity-vorticity formulation of Navier Stokes equations. RANS equations are coupled by a low-Reynolds number turbulent model, while Smagorinsky subgrid model is used for LES. The governing equations are solved with a numerical solution algorithm, which is based on the boundary element method. The pressure field is computed in a post processing step by solving a Poisson equation. The single domain as well as domain decomposition approaches are applied. The developed method was validated using flow over periodic hills test case.