Direct numerical simulations of airfoil cascades for the improvement of turbulence models through database generation

Authors

Michel Rasquin - Cenaero, Belgium
Jean-Francois Thomas - Cenaero, Belgium
Thomas Toulorge - Cenaero, Belgium
Patrick, Bechlars - MTU Aero Engines AG, Germany
Matthias Franke - MTU Aero Engines AG, Germany
Koen Hillewaert - Cenaero, Belgium / University of Liége, Belgium

Abstract

Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) of a typical LPT airfoil cascade at a Reynolds number of 120,000 have been carried out with the high-order compressible flow solver Argo developed at Cenaero. The objective of these simulations is to generate highly-refined comprehensive databases in a systematic and reproducible manner, which allows the reconstruction of all terms of the Favre-averaged Navier-Stokes, Reynolds stress, and dissipation equations. These databases can then be exploited to improve the prediction of lower-fidelity approaches such as RANS turbulence models, which allow for an extensive exploration of the design space thanks to their low computational cost. This paper presents a systematic approach for generating such databases. Particular points of interest are the reproducibility of the boundary conditions (e.g., injection of freestream turbulence) and the completeness of the databases. Comparison between the numerical and experimental results will also be presented as a validation of the numerical setup.