Modeling of Effect of Inflow Turbulence Data on Large Eddy Simulation of Circular Cylinder Flows

A random flow generation (RFG) algorithm for a previously established large eddy simulation (LES) code is successfully incorporated into a finite element fluid flow solver to generate the required inflow/initial turbulence boundary conditions for the three-dimensional (3D) LES computations of viscous incompressible turbulent flow over a nominally two-dimensional (2D) circular cylinder at Reynolds number of 140,000. The effect of generated turbulent inflow boundary conditions on the near wake flow and the shear layer and on the prediction of integral flow parameters is studied based on long time average results. Because the near-wall region cannot be resolved for high Reynolds number flows, no-slip velocity boundary function is used, but wall effects are taken into consideration with a near-wall modeling methodology that comprises the no-slip function with a modified form of van Driest damping approach to reduce the subgrid length scale in the vicinity of the cylinder wall. Simulations are performed for a 2D and a 3D configuration, and the simulation results are compared to each other and to the experimental data for different turbulent inflow boundary conditions with varying degree of inflow turbulence to assess the functionality of the RFG algorithm for the present LES code and, hence, its influence on the vortex shedding mechanism and the resulting flow field predictions.