Comparison of RANS Turbulence Models for the Simulation of Smooth Wall Boundary-Layers in Pressure Gradients at Moderate and High Reynolds Numbers

Abstract

Recently, experimental measurements of boundary-layers under non-equilibrium pressure gradients have been performed at Virginia Tech [1]. The pressure gradient imposed to the boundary-layers is induced by a rectangular wing with a NACA 0012 section placed in the middle of a wind tunnel at angles of attack ranging between -10 and 12 degrees. A comparison of simulations performed by several RANS flow solvers using different turbulence models with the experimental data has been reported in [2]. The study reported in [2] assumed a two-dimensional geometry and the proposed computational domain included a tilted top wall to take into account the displacement thickness of the side walls boundary-layers. The Reynolds number based on the velocity of the incoming flow, airfoil chord and fluid kinematic viscosity is 𝑅𝑒 = 2 × 10 , which for most naval applications corresponds to model scale.