Lars Davidson: MTF270 Turbulence Modelling

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DES February 23, 2006
DES (Detached Eddy Simulation) is a mix of LES and RANS.
The aim is to treat the boundary layer with RANS and cap-
ture the outer detached eddies with LES. The model was
originally developed for wings at very high angles of attack.
The RANS model that was originally used was the one-
equation model by Spalart & Allmaras (1992). It can be
written (Spalart & Allmaras, 1992; Davidson et al., 2003a,
Sect. 4.6)

t
t
+
u
j

t
x
j
=

x
j
_
+
t

t

t
x
j
_
+
C
b2

t

t
x
j

t
x
j
+ P Y

t
=
t
f
1
(132)
The production term G and the destruction term Y have
the form
P = C
b1

S +

t

2
d
2
f
2
_

t

S =
_
2

S
ij

S
ij
_
1/2
,

S
ij
=


U
i
x
j
+


U
j
x
i
Y = C
w1
f
w
_

t
d
_
2
(133)
d in the RANS SA model is equal to the distance to the
nearest wall.
In Spalart et al. (1997) the DES model was proposed in
which d is taken as the minimum of the RANS turbulent
length scale d and the cell length = max(x

, x

, x

),
i.e.

d = min(d, C
des
) (134)
DES
Lars Davidson: MTF270 Turbulence Modelling
http://www.tfd.chalmers.se/doct/comp turb model 78
x

, x

and x

denotes the cell length in the three grid

directions , and . The constant C
des
is usually set to
0.65.
In the boundary layer d < C
des
and thus the model
operates in RANS mode. Outside the turbulent boundary
layer C
des
< d so that the model operates in LES mode.
The modelled length scale is reduced and the consequence
is that the destruction term Y increases, which gives a re-
duction in the turbulent viscosity
t
. A reduced
t
gives a
smaller production term P so that the turbulent viscosity
is further reduced.
At rst sight it may seem that as the model switches
from RANS mode to LES mode thus reducing d, this would
give rise to an increased production term P through the
second term (see Eq. 133). However, this second term is a
viscous term and is active only close to the wall. This term
is sometimes neglected (Menter et al., 2003a)
DES based on two-equation models February 23, 2006
The model described above is a one-equation model. In
RANS mode it takes its length scale from the wall distance,
which in many situations is not a relevant turbulent length
scale. Recently, DES models based on two-equation models
have been formulated by Travin et al. (2002); De Langhe
et al. (2003); Kok et al. (2004). In these models the turbu-
lent length scale is either obtained from the two turbulent
quantities (e.g. k
3/2
/ or k
1/2
/) or the lter width . A
DES
Lars Davidson: MTF270 Turbulence Modelling
http://www.tfd.chalmers.se/doct/comp turb model 79
model based on the k model can read
k
t
+

x
j
(

U
j
k) =

x
j
_
( +
t
)
k
x
j
_
+ P
k

k
3/2

t
+

x
j
(

U
j
) =

x
j
__
+

t

_

x
j
_
+

k
(C
1
P
k
C
2
)
P
k
= 2
t

S
ij

S
ij
,
t
= C

k
1/2

t
The turbulent length scales
t
and

are computed as

t
= min
_
k
3/2

, C
k
/C

= min
_
k
3/2

, /C

_
The values of the constants can be (C

, C
k
, C

, C
1
, C
2
) =
(0.09, 1.31, 0.07, 1.09, 1.44, 1.92). Note that a low-Re k model
should be used. The AKN model Abe et al. (1994) could be
a suitable one.
In regions where the turbulent length scales are taken
from(LES mode) the -equation is still solved, but is not
used. However, it is needed as soon as the model switches
to RANS model again.
In the RANS mode the major part of the turbulence is
modelled. When the model switches to LES mode, the tur-
bulence is supposed to be represented by resolved turbu-
lence. This poses a major problem with this type of models.
If the switch occurs at location x
1
, it will take some dis-
tance L before the momentum starts to resolve any turbu-
lence. This is exactly what happens at an inlet in an LES
simulation if no real turbulence is given as inlet boundary
conditions. One way to get around this is to impose turbu-
lence uctuations as forcing conditions (Batten et al., 2004;
DES
Lars Davidson: MTF270 Turbulence Modelling
http://www.tfd.chalmers.se/doct/comp turb model 80
Piomelli et al., 2003; Davidson & Billson, 2006; Davidson &
Dahlstr om, 2006) at the location where the model switches
from RANS to LES mode.
DES based on the k SST model
The standard k model SST reads (Menter, 1994)
k
t
+

x
j
(

U
j
k) =

x
j
__
+

t

k
_
k
x
j
_
+ P
k

t
+

x
j
(

U
j
) =

x
j
__
+

t

_

x
j
_
+
P
k

2
+ 2(1 F
1
)
2
1

k
x
i

x
i
F
1
= tanh(
4
), = min
_
max
_

k

y
,
4
2
k
CD

y
2
__

t
=
a
1
k
max(a
1
, SF
2
)
F
2
= tanh(
2
), = max
_
2k
1/2

y
,
500
y
2

_
(135)
The SST model behaves as a k model near the wall
where F
1
= 1 and a k model far from walls (F
1
= 0).
All coefcients are blended between the k and the k
model using the function F
1
.
In DES the dissipation termin the k equation is modied
as Menter et al. (2003b)
DES
Lars Davidson: MTF270 Turbulence Modelling
http://www.tfd.chalmers.se/doct/comp turb model 81

kF
DES
, F
DES
= max
_
L
t
C
DES

, 1
_
= max {x, y, z}, L
t
=
k
1/2

Again, the DES modication is meant to switch the tur-

bulent length scale from a RANS length scale ( k
1/2
/) to
a LES length scale ( ) when the grid is sufciently ne.
When F
DES
is larger than one, the dissipation term in the
k equation increases which in turn decreases k and thereby
also the turbulent viscosity. With a smaller turbulent vis-
cosity in the momentum equations, the modelled dissipa-
tion (i.e the damping) is reduced and the ow is induced to
go unsteady. The result is, hopefully, that a large part of
the turbulence is resolved rather than being modelled.
In some ows it may occur that the F
DES
term switches
to DES in the boundary layer because z is too small (smaller
than the boundary layer thickness, ). Different proposals
have been made (Menter & Kunz, 2004; Strelets, 2001) to
protect the boundary layer from the DES mode
F
DES
= max
_
L
t
C
DES

(1 F
S
), 1
_
, F
S
= 0, F
1
or F
2
DES