An Attempt to Assess the Quality of Large Eddy Simulations in the Context of Implicit Filtering

Abstract

While methods for assessing the uncertainty of Reynolds–Averaged–Navier–Stokes (RANS) simulations have been well established in the past, the verification of Large Eddy Simulations (LES) is more difficult. One reason is that the numerical discretization error as well as the subgrid scale model contribution depend on the grid resolution and that both terms interact. In the present paper the accuracy of single-grid estimators to assess the amount of the unresolved turbulent kinetic energy is studied first. In the second part of the paper the sensitivity of the simulation results on the modeling error as well as the numerical error will be investigated in the context of LES with implicit filtering. This will be achieved by performing a systematic grid and model variation. The analysis is applied to an isothermal, turbulent, plane jet and a turbulent channel flow.