Abstract Thin liquid films flowing down the inner concave surface of a vertical cylindrical vessel
is examined. At the top of the vessel, the water is injected horizontally at high speed cir-
cumferentially along the vessel wall and flows downwards due to the action of gravity. This
turbulent film flow is modelled using the large eddy simulation (LES) and Reynolds aver-
aged Navier-Stokes (RANS) approaches combined with the volume-of-fluid method (VoF).
The results of both methods are validated with direct numerical simulation (DNS). The
Favre-filtered two-phase LES, which is implemented and studied in this paper, can reason-
ably predict the film thickness similar with that of RANS approach using elliptic blending
Reynolds stress model, although it requires fine resolution in the wall region. The effect of
the volume flow rate on the film structure and thickness is investigated. It is shown that the
film thickness is nearly constant when the wall is partially wetted and changes as the cubic
root of the volume flow rate when the spinning film encloses the entire circumference of the
vessel.