TECHNICAL PAPER

Version 2.00

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD
November 2015

/ Content/ 1. Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4/ 2. General Aspects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/

2.1. Limitations of Large Eddy Simulation (LES) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5/ 3. Scale-Resolving Simulation (SRS) Models – Basic Formulations..................... 9/ 3.1. Scale-Adaptive Simulation (SAS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
/ 3.2. Detached Eddy Simulation (DES) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11
/ 3.3. Shielded Detached Eddy Simulation (SDES)/ 3.4. Stress-Blended Eddy Simulation (SBES)/ 3.5. Large Eddy Simulation (LES). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

/ 3.6. Wall Modeled Large Eddy Simulation (WMLES). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14

/ 3.7. Embedded/Zonal LES (ELES, ZLES) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
/ 3.8. Unsteady Inlet/Interface Turbulence. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

/ 4. Generic Flow Types and Basic Model Selection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
/ 4.1. Globally Unstable Flows . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
/ 4.1.1. Flow Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
/ 4.1.2. Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
/ 4.1.3. Meshing Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
/ 4.1.4. Numerical Settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
/ 4.1.5. Examples. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19

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/ 4.2. Locally Unstable Flows/ 4.2.1. Flow Physics/ 4.2.2. Modeling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22

/ 4.2.3. Meshing Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
/ 4.2.4. Numerical Settings. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23

/ 4.2.5. Examples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
/ 4.3. Stable Flows and Wall Boundary Layers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
/ 4.3.1. Flow Physics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
/ 4.3.2. Modeling. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26

/ 4.3.3. Meshing Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
/ 4.3.4. Numerical Settings/ 4.3.5. Examples. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 27

/ 5. Numerical Settings for SRS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
/ 5.1. Spatial Discretization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
/ 5.1.1. Momentum . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34
/ 5.1.2. Turbulence Equations. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

/ 5.1.3. Gradients (Ansys Fluent). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

/ 5.1.4. Pressure (Ansys Fluent). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

/ 5.2. Time Discretization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
/ 5.2.1. Time Integration. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35

/ 5.2.2. Time Advancement and Under-Relaxation (Ansys Fluent). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

/ 6. Initial and Boundary Conditions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36
/ 6.1. Initialization of SRS. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36

/ 6.2. Boundary Conditions for SRS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
/ 6.2.1. Inlet Conditions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

/ 6.2.2. Outlet Conditions/ 6.2.3. Wall Conditions. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

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/ 6.2.4. Symmetry Versus Periodicity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD //2

/ 7. Post-Processing and Averaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
/ 7.1. Visual Inspection . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37
/ 7.2. Averaging . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 38
/ 8. Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
/ Acknowledgment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
/ References . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
/ Appendix 1: Summary of Numerics Settings with Ansys Fluent. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

/ Appendix 2: Summary of Numerics Settings With Ansys CFX. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42

/ Appendix 3: Models . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
/ Appendix 4: Generic Flow Types and Modeling . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD //3

/ 1. Introduction
While today’s CFD simulations are mainly based on Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) turbulence models, it is becoming increasingly
clear that certain classes of flows are better covered by models in which all or a part of the turbulence spectrum is resolved in at least a
portion of the numerical domain. Such methods are termed Scale-Resolving Simulation (SRS) models in this paper.
There are two main motivations for using SRS models in favor of RANS formulations. The first reason for using SRS models is the needfor additional information that cannot be obtained from the RANS simulation. Examples are acoustics simulations where the turbulence
generates noise sources, which cannot be extracted with accuracy from RANS simulations. Other examples are unsteady heat loadingin unsteady mixing zones of flow streams at different temperatures, which can lead to material failure, or multi-physics effects like vortex
cavitation, where the unsteady turbulence pressure field is the cause of cavitation. In such situations, the need for SRS can exist even incases where the RANS model would in principle be capable of computing the correct time-averaged flow field.
The second reason for using SRS models is related to accuracy. It is known that RANS models have their limitations in accuracy in certain
flow situations. RANS models have shown their strength essentially for wall-bounded flows, where the calibration according to thelaw-of-the-wall provides a sound foundation for further refinement. For free shear flows, the performance of RANS models is much lessuniform. There is a wide variety of such flows, ranging from simple self-similar flows such as jets, mixing layers and wakes to impinging
flows, flows with strong swirl, massively separated flows and many more. Considering that RANS models typically already have limitations
covering the most basic self-similar free shear flows with one set of constants, there is little hope that even the most advanced Reynolds
Stress Models (RSM) will eventually be able to provide a reliable foundation for all such flows. (For an overview of RANS modeling, see Durbin,
Pettersson and Reif, 2003; Wilcox, 2006; or Hanjalic and Launder, 2011.)
For free shear flows, it is typically much easier to resolve the largest turbulence scales, as they are of the order of the shear layer thickness.
In contrast, in wall boundary layers the turbulence length scale near the wall becomes very small relative to the boundary layer thickness(increasingly so at higher Re numbers). This poses severe limitations for Large Eddy Simulation (LES) as the computational effort required isstill far from the computing power available to industry (Spalart, 1997). (For an overview of LES modeling, see Guerts, 2004, and Wagner et al.,2007.) For this reason, hybrid models are under development where large eddies are resolved only away from walls and the wall boundary
layers are covered by a RANS model. Examples of such global hybrid models are Detached Eddy Simulation – DES (Spalart, 2000) or
Scale-Adaptive Simulation – SAS (Menter and Egorov 2011). A more recent development are the Shielded Detached Eddy Simulation (SDES)
and the Stress-Blended Eddy Simulation (SBES) proposed by the Ansys turbulence team.
A further step is to apply a RANS model only in the innermost part of the wall boundary layer and then to switch to a LES model for themain part of the boundary layer. Such models are termed Wall-Modelled LES (WMLES) (e.g. Shur et al., 2008). Finally, for large domains,
it is frequently necessary to cover only a small portion with SRS models, while the majority of the flow can be computed in RANS mode.
In such situations, zonal or embedded LES methods are attractive as they allow the user to specify ahead of time the region where LES
is required. Such methods are typically not new models in the strict sense, but allow the combination of existing models/technologies
in a flexible way in different portions of the flowfield. Important elements of zonal models are interface conditions, which convert
turbulence from RANS mode to resolved mode at pre-defined locations. In most cases, this is achieved by introducing synthetic
turbulence based on the length and time scales from the RANS model.
There are many hybrid RANS-LES models, often with somewhat confusing naming conventions, that vary in the range of turbulence
eddies they can resolve. For a general overview of SRS modeling concepts, see Fröhlich and von Terzi (2008), Sagaut et al. (2006).
SRS models are very challenging in their proper application to industrial flows. The models typically require special attention to various
details such as:•

Model selection.

•

Grid generation.

•

Numerical settings.

•

Solution interpretation.

•

Post-processing.

•Quality assurance.

Unfortunately, there is no unique model covering all industrial flows, and each individual model poses its own set of challenges. In
general, the user of a CFD code must understand the intricacies of the SRS model formulation in order to be able to select the optimalmodel and to use it efficiently. This report is intended to support the user in the basic understanding of such models and to provide
best practice guidelines for their usage. The discussion is focused on the models available in the Ansys CFD software.

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD //4

This report is intended as an addition to the code-specific Theory and User Documentation available for both Ansys Fluent™ and Ansys
CFX™. That documentation describes in detail how to select and activate these models, so that information is not repeated here. The
current document is intended to provide a general understanding of the underlying principles and the associated limitations of eachof the described modeling concepts. It also covers the types of flows for which the models are suitable as well as flows where they will
likely not work well. Finally, the impact of numerical settings on model performance is discussed.
In accordance with the intention of providing recommendations for day-to-day work, several Appendices can be found at the end of
the document for quick reference of the most important points.

/ 2. General Aspects/ 2.1. Limitations of Large Eddy Simulation (LES)
In order to understand the motivation for hybrid models, one has to discuss the limitations of Large Eddy Simulation (LES). LES has
been the most widely used SRS model over the last decades. It is based on the concept of resolving only the large scales of turbulence
and to model the small scales. The classical motivation for LES is that the large scales are problem-dependent and difficult to model,
whereas the smaller scales become more and more universal and isotropic and can be modeled more easily.
LES is based on filtering the Navier-Stokes equations over a finite spatial region (typically the grid volume) and aimed at only resolving
the portions of turbulence larger than the filter width. Turbulence structures smaller than the filter are then modeled – typically by asimple Eddy Viscosity model.
The filtering operation is defined as:

where G is the spatial filter. Filtering the Navier-Stokes equations results in the following form (density fluctuations neglected):

The equations feature an additional stress term due to the filtering operation:

Despite the difference in derivation, the additional sub-grid stress tensor is typically modelled as in RANS using an eddy viscosity
model:The important practical implication from this modeling approach is that the modeled momentum equations for RANS and LES are
identical if an eddy-viscosity model is used in both cases. In other words, the modeled Navier-Stokes equations have no knowledgeof their derivation. The only information they obtain from the turbulence model is the level of the eddy viscosity. Depending on that,the equations will operate in RANS or LES mode (or in some intermediate mode). The formal identity of the filtered Navier-Stokes
and the RANS equations is the basis of hybrid RANS-LES turbulence models, which can obviously be introduced into the same set of
momentum equations. Only the model (and the numerics) have to be switched.

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD //5

Classical LES models are of the form of the Smagorinsky (1963) model:

where ∆ is a measure of the grid spacing of the numerical mesh, S is the strain rate scalar and Cs is a constant. This is obviously a rather
simple formulation, indicating that LES models will not provide a highly accurate representation of the smallest scales. From apractical standpoint, a very detailed modeling might not be required. A more appropriate goal for LES is not to model the impact of
the unresolved scales on the resolved ones, but to model the dissipation of the smallest resolved scales. This can be seen from Figure 1
showing the turbulence energy spectrum of a Decaying Isotropic Turbulence – DIT test case, i.e. initially stirred turbulence in a box,
decaying over time (Comte-Bellot and Corrsin, 1971). E() is the turbulence energy as a function of wave number. Smallvaluesrepresent large eddies and large
values represent small eddies. Turbulence is moving down the turbulence spectrum from the small
wave number to the high wave numbers. In a fully resolved simulation (Direct Numerical Simulation – DNS), the turbulence isdissipated into heat at the smallest scales ( ~100 in Figure 1), by viscosity. The dissipation is achieved by:where
is typically a very small kinematic molecular viscosity. The dissipation
smallest scales are very large.

is still of finite value as the velocity gradients of the

However, LES computations are usually performed on numerical grids that are too coarse to resolve the smallest scales. In the current
example, the cut-off limit of LES (resolution limit) is at around =10. The velocity gradients of the smallest resolved scales in LES are
therefore much smaller than those at the DNS limit. The molecular viscosity is then not sufficient to provide the correct level ofdissipation. In this case, the proper amount of dissipation can be achieved by increasing the viscosity, using an eddy-viscosity:

The eddy viscosity is calibrated to provide the correct amount of dissipation at the LES grid limit. The effect can be seen in Figure 1,
where a LES of the DIT case is performed without a LES model and with different LES models. When the LES models are activated,the energy is dissipated and the models provide a sensible spectrum for all resolved scales. In other words, LES is not modelingthe influence of unresolved small scale turbulence onto the larger, resolved scales, but the dissipation of turbulence into heat (thedissipated energy is typically very small relative to the thermal energy of the fluid and does not have to be accounted for, except forhigh Mach number flows).
This discussion shows that LES is a fairly simple technology, which does notprovide a reliable backbone of modeling. This is also true for more complex
LES models like dynamic models. Dynamic eddy viscosity LES models (seee.g. Guerts 2004) are designed to estimate the required level of dissipation
at the grid limit from flow conditions at larger scales (typically twice thefilter width), thereby reducing the need for model calibration. However,again, such models also only provide a suitable eddy viscosity level forenergy dissipation. As a result, within the LES framework, all features andeffects of the flow that are of interest and relevance to engineers haveto be resolved in space and time. This makes LES a very CPU-expensive
technology.
Even more demanding is the application of LES to wall-bounded flows –which is the typical situation in engineering flows. The turbulent lengthscale, Lt, of the large eddies can be expressed as:

where y is the wall distance and is a constant. In other words, even the(locally) largest scales become very small near the wall and require a highresolution in all three space dimensions and in time.

Figure 1: Turbulence spectrum for DIT test case after
a non-dimensional time t=2. Comparison of results
without Sub-Grid Scale model (‘no LES’) with WALE andSmagorinsky LES model simulations.

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD //6

The linear dependence of Lt on y indicates that the turbulence length scales
approach zero near the wall, which would require an infinitely fine gridto resolve them. This is not the case in reality, as the molecular viscosity
prevents scales smaller than the Kolmogorov limit. This is manifested by theviscous or laminar sublayer, a region very close to the wall, where turbulenceis damped and does not need to be resolved. However, the viscous sublayer
thickness is a function of the Reynolds number, Re, of the flow. At higher Re
numbers, the viscous sublayer becomes decreasingly thinner and thereby
allows the survival of smaller and smaller eddies, which need to be resolved.
This is depicted in Figure 2 showing a sketch of turbulence structuresin the vicinity of the wall (e.g. channel flow with flow direction normal toobserver). The upper part of the picture represents a low Re number andthe lower part a higher Re number situation. The gray box indicates theviscous sublayer for the two Re numbers. The structures inside the viscous
sublayer (circles inside the gray box) are depicted but not present inreality due to viscous damping. Only the structures outside of the viscous
sublayer (i.e., above the gray box) exist and need to be resolved. Due to the
reduced thickness of the viscous sublayer in the high Re case, substantiallymore resolution is required to resolve all active scales. Wall-resolved LES istherefore prohibitively expensive for moderate to high Reynolds numbers.
This is the main reason why LES is not suitable for most engineering flows.

Figure 2: Sketch of turbulence structures
for wall-bounded channel flow with viscous sublayer (a)Low Re number (b) High Re number (Gray area: viscous
sublayer).

The Reynolds number dependence of wall-resolved LES can be estimatedfor a simple periodic channel flow as shown in Figure 3 (x-streamwise,y-wall-normal, z-spanwise, H is the channel height).
The typical resolution requirements for LES are:where ∆x+ is the non-dimensional grid spacing in the streamwise direction,∆z+ in the spanwise and Ny the number of cells across half of the channelheight. With the definitions:

one can find the number, Nt=Nx×Ny×Nz of cells required as a function of Rer
for resolving this limited domain of simple flow (see Table 1):
Figure 3: Turbulence structures in a channel flow.

Ret

500

103

104

105

Nt

5x105

2x106

2x108

2x1010

Table 1. Number of cells, Nt, vs Reynolds number for channel flow.

(For the practitioner: the Reynolds, Re, number based on the bulk velocity is around a factor of 10 larger than the Reynolds number, Rer,based on friction velocity. Note that Rer, is based on h=H/2. The number of cells increases strongly with Re number, demanding highcomputing resources even for very simple flows. The CPU power scales even less favorably, as the time step also needs to be reduced tomaintain a constant CFL number (CFL=(U ∆t)/ ∆x).
The Re number scaling for channel flows could be reduced by the application of wall functions with ever increasing y+ values forhigher Re numbers. However, wall functions are a strong source of modeling uncertainty and can undermine the overall accuracy ofsimulations. Furthermore, the experience with RANS models shows that the generation of high quality wall-function grids for complex
geometries is a very challenging task. This is even more so for LES applications, where the user would have to control the resolution in
all three space dimensions to conform to the LES requirements (e.g. ∆x+ and ∆z+ then depend on ∆y+).

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD //7

For external flows, there is an additional Re number effect resulting from the relative thickness of the boundary layer (e.g. boundary
layer thickness relative to chord length of an airfoil). At high Re numbers, the boundary layer becomes very thin relative to the body’s
dimensions. Assuming a constant resolution per boundary layer volume, Spalart et al. (1997, 2000) provided estimates of computing
power requirements for high Reynolds number aerodynamic flows under the most favorable assumptions. Even then, the computing
resources are excessive and will not be met even by optimistic estimates of computing power increases for several decades, except for
simple flows.
While the computing requirements for high Re number flows are dominated by the relatively thin boundary layers, the situation for
low Re number technical flows is often equally unfavorable, as effects such as laminar-turbulent transition dominate and need to beresolved. Based on reduced geometry simulations of turbomachinery blades (e.g. Michelassi, 2003), an estimate for a single turbine
blade with end-walls is given in Table 2:

MethodCells

Time Steps

Inner Loops Per
Time Step

Ratio to RANS

RANS

~106

~102

1

1

LES

~108-109~104-10510

105-107

Table 2. Computing power estimate for a single turbomachinery blade with end-walls.

Considering that the goal of turbomachinery companies is the simulationof entire machines (or at least significant parts of them), it is unrealistic toassume that LES will become a major element of industrial CFD simulations
even for such low Re number (Re~105) applications. However, LES can playa role in the detailed analysis of elements of such flows like cooling holes or
active flow control.
All the above does not mean that LES of wall-bounded flows is not feasibleat all, but just that the costs of such simulations are high. Figure 4 shows
the grid used for a LES around a NACA 0012 airfoil using the WALE model.
The computational domain is limited in the spanwise direction to 5%of the airfoil chord length using periodic boundary conditions in that
direction. At a Reynolds number of Re=1.1×106 a spanwise extent of 5%has been estimated as the minimum domain size that allows turbulence
structures to develop without being synchronized across the span by theperiodic boundary conditions. The estimate was based on the boundary
layer thickness at the trailing edge as obtained from a precursor RANS
computation. This boundary layer thickness is about 2% chord length.
The grid had 80 cells in the spanwise direction and overall 11×106 cells. The
simulation was carried out at an angle of attack of=7.3°, using Ansys
Fluent in incompressible mode. The chord length was set to c=0.23 [m], thefreestream velocity, U=71.3 [m/s] and the fluid is air at standard conditions.
The time step was set tot= 1.5×10-6[s] giving a Courant number of CFL~0.8
inside the boundary layer.
Figure 5 shows turbulence structures near the leading edge (a) and thetrailing edge (b). Near the leading edge, the laminar-turbulent transition
can clearly be seen. It is triggered by a laminar separation bubble. Near
the trailing edge, the turbulence structures are already relatively large, but
still appear unsynchronized in the spanwise direction (no large scale 2d
structures with axis orientation in the spanwise direction). The simulation
was run for ~104 time steps before the averaging procedure was started. The
time averaging was conducted for ~1×104 time steps. Figure 6 (a) shows acomparison of the wall pressure coefficient Cp and Figure 6 (b) of the wall
shear stress coefficient Cf on the suction side of the airfoil in comparison
with a RANS computation using the SST model (Menter, 1994). No detailed
discussion of the simulation is intended here, but the comparison of thewall shear stress with the well-calibrated RANS model indicates that theresolution of the grid is still insufficient for capturing the near-wall details.
For this reason, the wall shear stress is significantly underestimated byabout 30% compared to the SST model in the leading edge area. As the

Figure 4. Details of the grid around a NACA 0012 airfoil(a) grid topology (b) Leading edge area (c) Trailing edge
area.

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD //8

trailing edge is approached, the comparison improves, mainly because
the boundary layer thickness is increased whereas the wall shear stress isdecreased, meaning that a higher relative resolution is achieved in the LES.
Based on this simulation, it is estimated that a refinement by a factor of
2, in both streamwise and spanwise directions would be required in orderto reproduce the correct wall shear stress. While such a resolution is notoutside the realm of available computers, it is still far too high for day-to-day
simulations.
Overall, LES for industrial flows will be restricted in the foreseeable future toflows not involving wall boundary layers, or wall-bounded flows in strongly
reduced geometries, preferentially at low Re numbers.
The limitations of the conventional LES approach are the driving force
behind the development of hybrid RANS-LES models that are described in
the later parts of this report.

Figure 5. Turbulence structures of WALE LES
computation around a NACA 0012 airfoil (a) Leadingedge (b) Trailing edge (Q-criterion, color- spanwsie
velocity component).

/ 3. Scale-Resolving Simulation (SRS) Models –Basic Formulations
In the Ansys CFD codes the following SRS models are available:•

1.

Scale-Adaptive Simulation (SAS) models.
a.

•

•

2.

3.

Detached Eddy Simulation (DES) Models.
a.

DES-SA (DDES) model (Fluent).

b.

bDES-SST (DDES) model (Fluent, CFX).

c.

Realizable k-

4.

•

•

5.

6.

7.

All

-equation based 2-equation models in Fluent and CFX.

Stress-Blended Eddy Simulation (SBES).
a.

•-DES model (Fluent).

Shielded Detached Eddy Simulation (SDES).
a.

•

SAS-SST model (Fluent, CFX).

All-equation based 2-equation models in Fluent and CFX.

Large Eddy Simulation (LES).
a.

Smagorinsky-Lilly model (+dynamic) (Fluent, CFX).

b.

WALE model (Fluent, CFX).

c.

Kinetic energy subgrid model dynamic (Fluent).

d.

Algebraic Wall Modeled LES (WMLES) (Fluent, CFX).

Embedded LES (ELES) model.
a.

Combination of all RANS models with all non-dynamic LES
models (Fluent).

b.

Zonal forcing model (CFX).

Figure 6. (a) Wall pressure coefficient Cp and (b) wall
shear stress coefficient Cf on the suction side of a NACA
0012 airfoil. Comparison of RANS-SST and LES-WALE
results.

Synthetic turbulence generator.
a.

Vortex method (Fluent).

b.

Harmonic Turbulence Generator (HTG) (CFX).

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD //9

/ 3.1. Scale-Adaptive Simulation (SAS)In principle, all RANS models can be solved in unsteady mode (URANS).
Experience shows, however, that classical URANS models do not provide
any spectral content, even if the grid and time step resolution would be
sufficient for that purpose. It has long been argued that this behavior
is a natural outcome of the RANS averaging procedure (typically time
averaging), which eliminates all turbulence content from the velocity
field. By that argument, it has been concluded that URANS can work
only in situations of a ‘separation of scales’, e.g. resolve time variations
that are of much lower frequency than turbulence. An example would be
the flow over a slowly oscillating airfoil, where the turbulence is modeled
entirely by the RANS model and only the slow super-imposed motion is
resolved in time. A borderline case for this scenario is the flow over bluff
bodies, like a cylinder in crossflow. For such flows, the URANS simulation
provides unsteady solutions even without an independent external forcing.
The frequency of the resulting vortex shedding is not necessarily much
lower than the frequencies of the largest turbulent scales. This scenario is
depicted in Figure 7. It shows that URANS models (in this case SST) produce
a single mode vortex shedding even at a relatively high Re number of
Re=106. The vortex stream extends far into the cylinder wake, maintaining asingle frequency. This is in contradiction to experimental observations of abroadband turbulence spectrum.

Figure 7. URANS computations of a flow past a circularcylinder (SST model).

However, as shown in a series of publications (e.g. Menter and Egorov 2010,
Egorov et al., 2010), a class of RANS models can be derived based on atheoretical concept dating back to Rotta (see Rotta, 1972), which perform
like standard RANS models in steady flows, but allow the formation of abroadband turbulence spectrum for certain types of unstable flows (forthe types of flows, see Chapter 4). Such models are termed Scale-Adaptive
Simulation (SAS) models. This scenario is illustrated by Figure 8 whichshows the same simulation as in Figure 7 but with the SAS-SST model. The
behavior seen in Figure 7 is therefore not inherent to all RANS models, but
only to those derived in a special fashion.
The SAS concept is described in much detail in the cited references and will
not be repeated here. However, the basic model formulation needs to beprovided for a discussion of the model’s characteristics. The difference
between standard RANS and SAS models lies in the treatment of thescale-defining equation (typically -,, or Lt-equation). In classic RANS
models, the scale equation is modeled based on an analogy with thek-equation using simple dimensional arguments. The scale equation of SASmodels is based on an exact transport equation for the turbulence lengthscale as proposed by Rotta. This method was revisited by Menter and Egorov(2010) and avoids some limitations of the original Rotta model. As a result of
this reformulation, it was shown that the second derivative of the velocity
field needs to be included in the source terms of the scale equation. The
original SAS model (Menter and Egorov 2010) was formulated as a
two-equation model, with the variable
for the scale equation.

Figure 8. SAS simulation of flow past a circular cylinder(SAS-SST model).

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD //10

The main new term is the one including the von Karman length scale LvK, which does not appear in any standard RANS model. The
second velocity derivative allows the model to adjust its length scale to those structures already resolved in the flow. This functionality
is not present in standard RANS models. This leads to the behavior shown in Figure 8, which agrees more closely with the experimental
observations for such flows.
The LvK term can be transformed and implemented into any other scale-defining equation resulting in SAS capabilities as in the caseof the SAS-SST model. For the SAS-SST model, the additional term in the -equation resulting from the transformation has been
designed to have no (or at least minimal) effect on the SST model’s RANS performance for wall boundary layers. It can have a moderate
effect on free shear flows (Davidson, 2006).
The SAS model will remain in steady RANS mode for wall bounded flows, and can switch to SRS mode in flows with large and unstable
separation zones (see Chapter 4).
/ 3.2. Detached Eddy Simulation (DES)
Detached Eddy Simulation (DES) was introduced by Spalart and co-workers (Spalart et al., 1997, 2000, Travin et al., 2000, Strelets, 2001),
to eliminate the main limitation of LES models by proposing a hybrid formulation that switches between RANS and LES based on thegrid resolution provided. By this formulation, the wall boundary layers are entirely covered by the RANS model and the free shear flows
away from walls are typically computed in LES mode. The formulation is mathematically relatively simple and can be built on top of
any RANS turbulence model. DES has attained significant attention in the turbulence community as it was the first SRS model thatallowed the inclusion of SRS capabilities into common engineering flow simulations.
Within DES models, the switch between RANS and LES is based on a criterion like:

where ∆max is the maximum edge length of the local computational cell. The actual formulation for a two-equation model is (e.g.,k-equation of the k- model):As the grid is refined below the limit ∆max
Lt the DES-limiter is activated and switches the model from RANS to LES mode. For wallboundary layers this translates into the requirement that the RANS formulation is preserved as long as the following conditions holds:
∆ max
where
is the boundary layer thickness. The intention of the model is to run in RANS mode for attached flow regions,and to switch to LES mode in detached regions away from walls. This suggests that the original DES formulation, as well as its later
versions, requires a grid and time step resolution to be of LES quality once they switch to the grid spacing as the defining length scale.
Once the limiter is activated, the models lose their RANS calibration and all relevant turbulence information needs to be resolved. For
this reason, e.g., in free shear flows, the DES approach offers no computational savings over a standard LES model. However, it allows
the user to avoid the high computing costs of covering the wall boundary layers in LES mode.
It is also important to note that the DES limiter can already be activated by grid refinement inside attached boundary layers. This is
undesirable as it affects the RANS model by reducing the eddy viscosity which, in turn, can lead to Grid-Induced Separation (GIS), as
discussed by Menter and Kuntz (2002), where the boundary layers can separate at arbitrary locations depending on the grid spacing.
In order to avoid this limitation, the DES concept has been extended to Delayed-DES (DDES) by Spalart et al. (2006), following the
proposal of Menter and Kuntz (2003) of ‘shielding’ the boundary layer from the DES limiter. The DDES extension was also applied to the
DES-SA formulation resulting in the DDES-SA model, as well as to the SST model giving the DDES-SST model.

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD //11

For two-equation models, the dissipation term in the k-equation is thereby reformulated as follows:

The function FDDES is designed in such a way as to give FDDES=1 inside the wall boundary layer and FDDES=0 away from the wall. The
definition of this function is intricate as it involves a balance between proper shielding and not suppressing the formation of resolved
turbulence as the flow separates from the wall. As the function FDDES blends over to the LES formulation near the boundary layeredge, no perfect shielding can be achieved. The limit for DDES is typically in the range of ∆max 0.2 .
and therefore allows formeshes where ∆max is of factor five smaller than for DES, without negative effects on the RANS-covered boundary layer. However, eventhis limit is frequently reached and GIS can appear even with DDES.
There are a number of DDES models available in Ansys CFD. They follow the same principal idea with respect to switching between
RANS and LES mode. The models differ therefore mostly by their RANS capabilities and should be selected accordingly.
/ 3.3. Shielded Detached Eddy Simulation (SDES)
The SDES formulation is a member of the DDES model family, but offers alternatives for the shielding function and the definition of
the grid scale. The impact on the turbulence model is as usual formulated as an additional sink term in the k-equation:

The shielding function fS will provide much stronger shielding than the corresponding FDDES function above. For this reason, the natural
shielding of the model based on the mesh length definition, ∆, can be reduced. The mesh length scale used in the SDES model isdefined as follows:

The first part represents the conventional LES grid length scale definition, and the second part is again based on the maximum edge
length as in the DES formulation. However, the factor 0.2 ensures that for highly stretched meshes, the grid length scale is a factor of
5 smaller than for DES/DDES. Since the grid length scale enters quadratically into the definition of the eddy-viscosity in LES mode,
this means a reduction of factor 25 in such cases. It will be shown that this drastically reduces the frequently observed problem ofslow ‘transition’ of DES/DDES models from RANS to LES. Note that the combination of this more ‘aggressive’ length scale with theconventional DDES shielding function would severely reduce the shielding properties of DDES and is therefore not recommended.
The SDES constant CSDES is also different from the DES/DDES formulation, where it is calibrated based on decaying isotropic turbulence(DIT) with the goal of matching the turbulence spectrum relative to data after certain running times. However, in engineeringflows, one typically has to deal with shear flows, for which a reduced Smagorinky constant should be used. This is achieved by
setting CSDES=0.4. The combination of the re-definition of the grid length scale and the modified constant leads to a reduction in the
eddy-viscosity by a factor of around 60 in separating shear flows on stretched grids. It will be shown later that this results in a much
more rapid transition from RANS to LES.
The shielding function fS is formulated such that it provides essentially asymptotic shielding on any grid. In flat plate tests, the limit was
pushed below ∆SDES~0.01 .
The following test case shows the improved shielding properties of SDES/SBES models relative to DDES. The flow is a diffuser flow in an
axisymmetric geometry featuring a small separation bubble. Due to the adverse pressure gradient, the boundary layer grows strongly
and shielding is difficult to achieve due to the strong increase in Lt.

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD //12

The computational domain is shown in Figure 9. The length of the domain
in the streamwise direction is about 7.8·D [m] (D is the diameter of thecylinder and x/D=0 corresponds to the separation point in the experiment).
For this flow, a standard RANS grid is used with steps in the streamwise
and circumferential directions of ∆x/ δ0=0.67 and r∆ φ/δ 0=0.5÷1 respectively(the grid step in the circumferential direction is changing in radial direction
due to the axisymmetric geometry). Here δ0=0.07·D is the boundary layer
thickness at the inlet section. The height of the wall cell is chosen to satisfy
the condition ∆y+w<1 in the entire domain and around 30 cells cover theboundary layer.

Figure 9. The domain and grid for the separated flow in
CS0 diffuser.

As seen from the contours of the SBES and DDES blending functions shownin Figure 10, SBES covers the entire boundary layer including the rapid
growth area of the boundary layer due to the separation bubble, while DDES
preserves only the portion of the domain at the inlet. This means that underadverse pressure gradient conditions, the shielding properties of DDES are
substantially impaired.
Similar observations can be made for the eddy viscosity fields shown in
Figure 11. The eddy viscosity levels of SBES correspond to those of the SST
model (not shown), while the DDES model produces much reduced levels in
the adverse pressure gradient region.
/ 3.4. Stress-Blended Eddy Simulation (SBES)As stated in the introduction, the SBES model concept is built on the SDES
formulation. In addition to SDES, SBES is using the shielding function fS to
explicitly switch between different turbulence model formulations in RANS
and LES mode. In general terms that means for the turbulence stress tensor:

Figure 10. Contours of blending functions overset byvorticity iso-lines for CS=0 diffuser for SBES and DDES
models.

where rijRANS is the RANS part and rijLES the LES part of the modelled stresstensor. In case both model portions are based on eddy-viscosity concepts,
the formulation simplifies to:

Such a formulation would not be feasible without strong shielding. Whenusing the conventional shielding functions from the DDES model, thecorresponding model would not be able to maintain a zero pressure
gradient RANS boundary layer on any grid.
The SBES model formulation is currently recommended relative to otherglobal hybrid RANS-LES methods. It offers the following advantages:•

Asymptotic shielding of the RANS boundary layers.

•

Explicit switch to user-specified LES model in LES region.

•

Rapid ‘transition’ from RANS to LES region.

•

Clear visualization of RANS and LES regions based on shielding
function.

•

Wall-modelled LES capability once in LES/WMLES mode.

Figure 11. Contours of eddy viscosity ratio for CS0 diffuser
for SBES and DDES models.

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD //13

/ 3.5. Large Eddy Simulation (LES)
The details of different LES models can be found in the User and Theory documentation of the corresponding solvers. As described in
Section 2.1, the main purpose of LES models is to provide sufficient damping for the smallest (unresolved) scales. For this reason, it is
not advisable to use complex formulations, but stay with simple algebraic models. The most widely used LES model is the Smagorinsky(1963) model:

The main deficiency of the Smagorinsky model is that its eddy-viscosity does not go to zero for laminar shear flows (onlyU/ y≠0).
For this reason, this model also requires a near-wall damping function in the viscous sublayer. It is desirable to have a LES formulationthat automatically provides zero eddy-viscosity for simple laminar shear flows. This is especially important when computing flows withlaminar turbulent transition, where the Smagorinsky model would negatively affect the laminar flow. The simplest model to provide
this functionality is the WALE (Wall-Adapting Local Eddy-viscosity) model of Nicoud and Ducros (1999). The same effect is also achievedby dynamic LES models, but at the cost of a somewhat higher complexity. None of the classical LES models addresses the mainindustrial problem of excessive computing costs for wall-bounded flows at moderate to high Reynolds numbers.
However, there are numerous cases at very low Reynolds numbers where LES can be an industrial option. Under such conditions, thewall boundary layers are likely laminar and turbulence forms only in separated shear layers and detached flow regions. Such situations
can be identified by analyzing RANS eddy viscosity solutions for a given flow. In a case where the ratio of turbulence to molecularviscosity R=( t/ ) is smaller than R~15 inside the boundary layer, it can be assumed that the boundary layers are laminar and no
resolution of near-wall turbulence is required. Such conditions are observed for flows around valves or other small-scale devices at low
Reynolds numbers.
LES can also be applied to free shear flows, where resolution requirements are much reduced relative to wall-bounded flows.
/ 3.6. Wall Modeled Large Eddy Simulation (WMLES)
Wall Modeled LES (WMLES) is an alternative to classical LES and reduces the stringent and Re number-dependent grid resolution
requirements of classical wall-resolved LES (Section 2.1.) The principle idea is depicted in Figure 12. As described in Section 2.1, the nearwall turbulence length scales increase linearly with the wall distance, resulting in smaller and smaller eddies as the wall is approached.
This effect is limited by molecular viscosity, which damps out eddies inside the viscous sublayer (VS). As the Re number increases,
smaller and smaller eddies appear, since the viscous sublayer becomes thinner. In order to avoid the resolution of these small nearwall scales, RANS and LES models are combined such that the RANS model covers the very near-wall layer, and then switches over tothe LES formulation once the grid spacing becomes sufficient to resolve the local scales. This is seen in Figure 12(b), where the RANS
layer extends outside of the VS, thus avoiding the need to resolve the inner‘second’ row of eddies depicted in the sketch.
The WMLES formulation in Ansys CFD is based on the formulation of Shur etal. (2008):

where y is the wall distance,is the von Karman constant, S is the strain
rate and fD is a near-wall damping function. This formulation was adapted tosuit the needs of the Ansys general purpose CFD codes. Near the wall, themin-function selects the Prandtl mixing length model whereas away fromthe wall it switches over to the Smagorinsky model. Meshing requirements
for the WMLES approach are given in section 4.3.3.
Figure 12. Concept of WMLES for high Re number flows(a) Wall-resolved LES. (b) WMLES.

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD //14

For wall boundary layer flows, the resolution requirements of WMLES depend on the details of the model formulation. In Ansys Fluent
and Ansys CFX they are (assuming for this estimate that x is the streamwise, y the wall normal and z the spanwise direction as shownin Figure 13):

where Nx , Ny, and Nz are the numbers of cells in the streamwise, wall normal, and spanwise directions respectively per boundary layer
thickness,(see Figure 13). In other words, one needs about 6000-8000 cells for covering one boundary layer volume × × . Thisis also the minimal resolution for classical LES models at low Reynolds numbers. Actually, for low Reynolds numbers, WMLES turns
essentially into classical LES. The advantage of WMLES is that the resolution requirements relative to the boundary layer thickness
remain independent of the Reynolds number.
While WMLES is largely Reynolds number-independent for channel and pipe flows (where the boundary layer thickness needs to be
replaced by half of the channel height) there remains a Reynolds number sensitivity for aerodynamic boundary layer flows, where
the ratio of the boundary layer thickness, , to a characteristic body dimension, L, is decreasing with increasing Reynolds number,e.g. there are more boundary layer volumes to consider at increased Reynolds numbers. It should also be noted that despite the large
cost savings of WMLES compared with wall-resolved LES, the cost increase relative to RANS models is still substantial. Typical RANS
computations feature only one cell per boundary layer thickness in streamwise and spanwise directions (Nx~Nz~1). In addition, RANS
steady state simulations can be converged in the order of ~102-103 iterations, whereas unsteady simulations typically require ~104-105.
For wall-normal resolution in WMLES, it is recommended to use grids with ∆y+=~1 at the wall. If this cannot be achieved, the WMLES
model is formulated to tolerate coarser ∆y+ values (∆y+-insensitive formulation) as well.
For channel and pipe flows, the above resolution requirements for theboundary layer should be applied, only replacing the boundary layer
thickness, , with half the channel height, or with the pipe radius in thegrid estimation. This estimate would result in a minimum of ~120 cells in thecircumferential direction (360o) for a fully developed pipe flow.
It should be noted that reductions in grid resolution similar to WMLES
can be achieved with classical LES models when using LES wall functions.
However, the generation of suitable grids for LES wall functions is very
challenging as the grid spacing normal to the wall and the wall-parallel grid
resolution requirements are coupled and strongly dependent on Re number(unlike RANS where only the wall-normal resolution must be considered).
In Ansys Fluent, the WMLES formulation can be selected as one of the LES
options; in Ansys CFX it is always activated inside the LES zone of the Zonal
Forced LES (ZFLES) method.
/ 3.7. Embedded/Zonal LES (ELES, ZLES)
The idea behind ELES is to predefine different zones with different
treatments of turbulence in the pre-processing stage. The domain is split
into a RANS and a LES portion ahead of the simulation. Between the
different regions, the turbulence model is switched from RANS to LES/WMLES. In order to maintain consistency, synthetic turbulence is generally
introduced at RANS-LES interfaces. ELES is actually not a new model, but
an infrastructure that combines existing elements of technology in a zonal
fashion. The recommendations for each zone are therefore the same as
those applicable to the individual models.

Figure 13. Sketch of boundary layer profile with
. x-streamwise, y normal and z-spanwise.
thickness

In Ansys Fluent, an Embedded LES formulation is available (Cokljat et al.,2009). It allows the combination of most RANS models with all non-dynamic
LES models in the predefined RANS and LES regions respectively. The
conversion from modeled turbulence to resolved turbulence is achieved at
the RANS-LES interface using the Vortex Method (Mathey et al., 2003).

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD //15

In CFX, a similar functionality is achieved using a method called Zonal Forced LES (ZFLES) (Menter et al., 2009). The simulation isbased on a pre-selected RANS model. In a LES zone, specified via a CEL expression, forcing terms in the momentum and turbulence
equations are activated. These terms push the RANS model into a WMLES formulation. In addition, synthetic turbulence is generated
at the RANS-LES interface.
There is an additional option in Ansys Fluent that involves using a global turbulence model (SAS, DDES, SDES, SBES), and activatesthe generation of synthetic turbulence at a pre-defined interface. The code takes care of balancing the resolved and modeled
turbulence through the interface. This option can be used to force global hybrid models into unsteadiness for cases where the natural
flow instability is not sufficient. Unlike ELES, where different models are used in different zones, the same turbulence model is used
upstream and downstream of the interface. This is different from ELES, where different models are used in different zones on opposite
sides of the interface.
Such forcing can also by achieved in Ansys CFX by specifying a thin LES region and using the SAS or DDES/SDES/SBES model globally.
The SBES model is most suitable for this scenario.
/ 3.8. Unsteady Inlet/Interface TurbulenceClassical LES requires providing unsteady fluctuations at turbulent inlets/interfaces (RANS-LES interface) to the LES domain. This
makes LES substantially more demanding than RANS, where profiles of the mean turbulence quantities (and orand ) aretypically specified. An example is a fully turbulent channel (pipe) flow. The flow enters the domain in a fully turbulent state at the
inlet. The user is therefore required to provide suitable resolved turbulence at such an inlet location through unsteady inlet velocity
profiles. The inlet profiles have to be composed in such a way that their time average corresponds to the correct mean flow inlet
profiles, as well as to all relevant turbulence characteristics (turbulence time and length scales, turbulence stresses, and so on). For
fully turbulent channel and pipe flows, this requirement can be circumvented by the application of periodic boundary conditionsin the flow direction. The flow is thereby driven by a source term in the momentum equation acting in the streamwise direction.
By that ‘trick,’ the turbulence leaving the domain at the outlet enters the domain again at the inlet, thereby avoiding the explicit
specification of unsteady turbulence profiles. This approach can obviously be employed only for very simple configurations. It requiresa sufficient length of the domain (at least ~8-10h (see Figure 3)) in the streamwise direction to allow the formation inside the domainof turbulence structures independent of the periodic boundaries.
In most practical cases, the geometry does not allow fully periodic simulations. It can however feature fully developed profiles at
the inlet (again typically pipe/channel flows). In such cases, one can perform a periodic precursor simulation on a separate periodic
domain and then insert the unsteady profiles obtained at any cross-section of that simulation to the inlet of the complex CFD domain.
This approach requires either a direct coupling of two separate CFD simulations or the storage of a sufficient number of unsteadyprofiles from the periodic simulation to be read in by the full simulation.
In a real situation, however, the inlet profiles might not be fully developed and no simple method exists for producing consistent
inlet turbulence. In such cases, synthetic turbulence can be generated, based on given inlet profiles from RANS. These are typicallyobtained from a precursor RANS computation of the domain upstream of the LES inlet.
There are several methods for generating synthetic turbulence. In Ansys Fluent, the most widely used method is the Vortex Method(VM) (Mathey et al., 2003), where a number of discrete vortices are generated at the inlet. Their distribution, strength and size aremodeled to provide the desirable characteristics of real turbulence. The input parameters to the VM are the two scales (and orand ) from the upstream RANS computation. CFX uses the generation of synthetic turbulence through suitable harmonic functions
as an alternative to the VM (e.g. Menter et al., 2009).
The characteristic of high-quality synthetic turbulence in wall-bounded flows is that it recovers the time-averaged turbulent stresstensor quickly downstream of the inlet. This can be checked by plotting sensitive quantities like the time-averaged wall shear stressor heat transfer coefficient and observing their variation downstream of the inlet. It is also advisable to investigate the turbulence- vorticity). This can be done
structures visually by using, for example, an iso-surface of the Q-criterion, Q=1/2( -S2) (S- Strain rate,even after a few hundred time steps into the simulation.
Because synthetic turbulence will never coincide in all aspects with true turbulence, one should avoid putting an inlet/interface at
a location with strong non-equilibrium turbulence activity. In boundary layer flows, that means that the inlet or RANS-LES interface
should be located several (at least ~3-5) boundary layer thicknesses upstream of any strong non-equilibrium zone (e.g. separation). The
boundary layers downstream of the inlet/interface need to be resolved with a sufficiently high spatial resolution (see Section 4.3.3).

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD //16

/ 4. Generic Flow Types and Basic Model Selection
As will be discussed, there is a wide range of complex industrial turbulent flows and there is no single SRS approach to cover all ofthem with high efficiency. The most difficult question for the user is therefore: how to select the optimal model combination for agiven simulation? For this task, it is useful to categorize flows into different types. Although such a categorization is not always easy
and by no means scientifically exact (there are many flows which do not exactly fall into any one of the proposed categories or fall into
more than one) it might still help in the selection of the most appropriate SRS modeling approach.
/ 4.1. Globally Unstable Flows
4.1.1. Flow Physics
The classical example of a globally unstable flow is a flow past a bluff body. Even when computed with a classical URANS model, thesimulation will typically provide an unsteady output. Figure 16 shows the flow around a triangular cylinder in crossflow as computed withboth the SAS-SST and the DES-SST model. It is important to emphasize that the flow is computed with steady-state boundary conditions(as would be employed for a RANS simulation). Still, the flow downstream of the obstacle turns quickly into unsteady (scale-resolving) mode,even though no unsteadiness is introduced by any boundary or interface condition.
From a physical standpoint, such flows are characterized by the formation of ‘new’ turbulence downstream of the body. This turbulence
is independent from, and effectively overrides, the turbulence coming from the thin, attached boundary layers around the body. In otherwords, the turbulence in the attached boundary layers has very little effect on the turbulence in the separated zone. The attached boundary
layers can, however, define the separation point/line on a smoothly curved body and thereby affect the size of the downstream separation
zone. This effect can be tackled by a suitable underlying RANS model.
Typical members of this family of flows are given in the list below. Such flows are very common in engineering applications and are also thetype of flows where RANS models can exhibit a significant deterioration of their predictive accuracy.
Examples of globally unstable flows include:

•

•

-

Flows past bluff bodies.

-

Flow past buildings.

-

Landing gears of airplanes.

-

Baffles in mixers, etc.

-

Side mirrors of cars.

-

Stalled wings/sails.

-

Re-entry vehicles.

-

Trains/trucks/cars in crossflow.

-

Tip gap of turbomachinery blades.

-

Flows past orifices, sharp nozzles, etc.

-

Cavities.

-

Flows with large separation zones (relative to attached boundary layer thickness).

Flows with strong swirl instabilities include:-

Flow in combustion chambers of gas turbines, etc.

-

Flows past vortex generators.

-

Some tip vortex flows in adverse pressure gradients.

Flows with strong flow interaction include:-

Impinging/colliding jets.

-

Jets in crossflow.

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD //17

The color scheme of the preceding points above identifies flows that are clearly within the definition of globally unstable flows (black) andthose where the type of the flow depends on details of its regime/geometry (gray). Such flows fall in-between globally and locally unstableflows (see section 4.2).
4.1.2. Modeling
Of all flows where SRS modeling is required, globally unstable flows are conceptually the easiest to handle. They can typically be captured bya global RANS-LES model such as SAS, DDES, SDES or SBES. Such models cover the attached and mildly separated boundary layers in RANS
mode, thereby avoiding the high costs of resolving wall turbulence. Due to the strong flow instability past the separation line, there is noneed for specifying unsteady inlet turbulence nor to define specific LES zones. Globally unstable flows are also the most beneficial for SRS,
as experience shows that RANS models can fail with significant margins of error for such flows. A large number of industrial flows fall into
this category.
The safest SRS model for such flows is the SAS approach. It offers the advantage that the RANS model is not affected by the grid spacing
and thereby avoids the potential negative effects of (D)DES-type models (gray zones or grid induced separation). The SAS concept reverts
back to (U)RANS in case the mesh/time step is not sufficient for LES and thereby preserves a ‘backbone’ of modeling that is independentof space and time resolution, albeit at the increased cost that is associated with any transient SRS calculation. SAS also avoids the need forshielding, which for internal flows with multiple walls can suppress turbulence formation in DDES models.
The alternatives to SAS are DDES, SDES and SBES. If proper care is taken to ensure LES mesh quality in the detached flow regions, thesemodels will be operating in the environment for which they were designed, typically providing high-quality solutions. DDES has shown
advantages for flows at the limit of globally unstable flows (see Figure 50) where the SAS model can produce URANS-like solutions. In cases
like these, DDES still provides SRS in the separated regions. As noted, the DDES has been superseded by the SDES and DSBES model family.
For globally unstable flows, the behavior of all global hybrid models is often very similar.
4.1.3. Meshing Requirements
The part of the domain where the turbulence model acts in RANS mode has to be covered by a suitable RANS grid. It is especially importantthat all relevant boundary layers are covered with sufficient resolution (typically a minimum of 10-15 structured cells across the boundary
layer). It is assumed that the user is familiar with grid requirements for RANS simulations.
The estimate for the lowest possible mesh resolution in the detached SRS region is based on the assumption that the largest relevant scales
are similar in size to the width of the instability zone. For a bluff body, this would be the diameter D of the body, for a combustor, thediameter of the core vortex, for a jet in crossflow, the diameter of the jet, and so on. Experience shows that the minimum resolution for suchflows is of the order:

e.g. more than 20 cells per characteristic diameter, D (in some applications with very strong instabilities, even 10 cells across the layer
may be sufficient). As is generally the case for SRS, it is best to provide isotropic (cubic) cells, or at least to avoid large aspect ratios(aspect ratios smaller than <5 would be optimal, but cannot always be achieved in complex geometries).
With the above estimate for ∆max, there is a good chance of resolving the main flow instability and the resulting strong turbulent
mixing processes associated with the global flow instability (an effect often missed by RANS models). For acoustics simulations, it
might also be important to resolve the turbulence generated in the (often thin) shear layer that is separating from the body. This posesa much more stringent demand on grid resolution on the simulation as this shear layer scales with the boundary layer thickness at
separation and can be much smaller than the body dimension. This situation is covered in Section 4.2.
4.1.4. Numerical Settings
The general numerical settings are described in Section 5. Globally unstable flows are relatively forgiving with respect to numerics, at leastas far as the mean flow characteristics are concerned. The recommended choice for the advection terms is the Bounded Central Difference(BCD) scheme, especially for complex geometries and flows. For such flows, the classical Central Difference (CD) scheme can be unstableor produce unphysical wiggles in the solution (see Figure 58). The BCD scheme is slightly more dissipative, but is substantially more robust
and is therefore frequently the optimal choice. If a visual inspection of the flow (see Section 7.1) shows that turbulence structures are notproduced in agreement with the expectations for the flow, one can switch to CD. If this switch is made, it is advisable to closely monitor
the solution (visually and numerically through residuals) to ensure that wiggles are not dominating the simulation. With SAS the ‘Least
Square Cell Based’ or the ‘Node-Based Green Gauss’ gradient method should be used in Ansys Fluent. The latter allows a slightly better
representation of the second derivative of the velocity field that is required for the model formulation (von Karman length scale).

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD //18

In Ansys CFX, the default hybrid numerical option switches explicitly between
the High Resolution Scheme (in the RANS region) and the CD scheme (in the
LES region). However, for most applications, it appears that the use of the BCD
scheme should also be favored in Ansys CFX (see also section 5.1.1)
4.1.5. Examples
The following examples have been computed before the availability of the
SDES/SBES model family. They are therefore based on the SAS/DDES model
formulations. Due to the strong flow instability in these flows, the choice ofmodel formulation is marginal and all hybrid model provide fairly similarsolutions.
Flow around a Fighter Aircraft
Figure 14 shows a highly complex, globally unstable flow field, around ageneric fighter aircraft geometry at high angle of attack as computed with
the SAS-SST model. The grid consists of 108 hybrid cells. This simulation
is currently in progress within the EU project ATAAC and no detailed
discussion of this flow is intended. This image demonstrates the complex
regional appearance of resolved turbulence around the aircraft. It is obviousthat the application of global models like SAS or DDES greatly simplifies the
setup for such flows compared to using ELES/ZLES, where the user would
have to define the ‘LES’ regions and suitable interfaces between the RANS
and LES regions in a pre-processing step. In contracts, when using global
models, the simulation is first carried out in standard RANS mode. Startingfrom that RANS solution, the model is then simply switched to the SAS or
DDES variant of the RANS model, the solver is set to unsteady mode and thenumerics are adjusted according to section 4.1.4. No further adjustment isrequired in order to produce the solutions shown in Figure 14.
Flow Around a Triangular Cylinder

Figure 14. Turbulence structures for flow around ageneric fighter aircraft (Q-criterion) as computed by
SAS-SST model.
Courtesy – EADS Germany GmbH – Military Air Systems
DESIDER Project.

Figure 15. Grid around cylinder in crossflow.

Figure 15 shows the grid around a triangular cylinder in crossflow. The
Reynolds number based on the freestream velocity (17.3 m/s) and theedge length is 45,500. Periodic boundary conditions have been applied in
the spanwise direction. The simulations have been run with Ansys Fluent
using the BCD (bounded Central Difference) and CD (Central Difference)
advection schemes and a time step of ∆t=10-5s (CFL~1 behind cylinder). The
grid features 26 cells across its base. It is extended in the spanwise direction
to cover six times the edge length of the triangle with 81 cells in that
direction. Due to the strong global instability of this flow, such resolution
was sufficient and has produced highly accurate solutions for mean flow
and turbulence quantities (Figure 16).
It should be noted that not all flows produce such strong instability as
the triangular cylinder, and a higher grid resolution might be required forflows with less instability. Figure 16 shows that the grid does not provide
resolution of the boundary layer on the walls of the triangular body. This is
not a problem in the current case because the wall boundary layer has noinfluence on the global flow, as it separates at the corners of the triangle. In
real flows, this might not always be the case and the boundary layer should
be resolved with a RANS-type mesh i.e. a finer mesh in the near-wall region
with higher aspect ratios being acceptable.

Figure 16. Turbulence structures for flow around acylinder in crossflow.

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD //19

Figure 16 shows a visual representation of the flow using the DDES-SST and
the SAS-SST models with the Q-criterion (see section 7.1). Both simulations
have been carried out using the BCD scheme. Both models generate
resolved turbulence structures in agreement with the expectation for
the grid provided. Figure 17 shows a comparison with the experimental
data (Sjunnesson et al., 1992) for the wake velocity profiles as well as forturbulence characteristics.
Figure 18 shows a comparison of the CD and the BCD scheme for the
triangular cylinder using the SAS-SST model. The turbulence content isalmost identical, except that some smaller scales are present in the CD
simulation downstream of the body. A comparison with experimental data
showed results that are almost identical to the ones shown in Figure 17 andindependent of whether the CD or the BCD scheme was used.
ITS Combustion Chamber
The SAS-SST model is applied to the flow in a single swirl burnerinvestigated experimentally by Schildmacher et al. (2000) at ITS (Institut fürThermische Strömungsmaschinen) of the University of Karlsruhe. The ITS
burner is a simplified industrial gas turbine combustor. It concentrates on
the swirl flow in the combustion region. Similar to the triangular cylinder
test case, the wall boundary layers are not important – meaning that thistest case is also accessible to pure LES simulations. However, in manyindustrial combustion chambers wall boundary layers and auxiliary pipe
flows have to be considered, thus making them unsuitable for pure LES.
There are two co-axial inlet streams and both are swirling in the same
direction. The swirl is generated by means of the two circumferential arraysof blades, which are not included in the current computational domain.
The axisymmetric velocity profiles with the circumferential component
corresponding to the given swirl number are used as the inlet boundary
conditions. The swirl gives the flow a strong global instability, which can be
captured well by global SRS models.
Figure 19 shows the geometry. The grid, shown in Figure 20 consists of
3.6×106 tetrahedral elements. As stated the wall boundary layers are notimportant and are therefore not resolved on this tetrahedral mesh. The
simulation was run with Ansys CFX, which internally converts the grid to apolyhedral grid with 6×105 control volumes around the grid points for thenode-based solver. This means that the polyhedral grid cells are larger thanthe visual impression from Figure 20 with ~20-30 cells covering the relevant
length scale L shown in Figure 20. The grid does not feature any near-wallboundary layer resolution. It is recommended to provide such a boundary
layer grid for industrial flows (typically more than 10 structured cells acrossthe boundary layer), as in some geometries the separation characteristics
near the burner entrance can depend on such details. The convection
scheme selected was the default hybrid scheme; however, BCD should also
work well.

Figure 17. Velocity profiles and turbulence RMS profiles
for three different stations downstream of the triangularcylinder (x/a=0.375, x/a=1.53, x/a=3.75). Comparisonof SAS-SST, DES-SST models, and experiment. (a)U-velocity, (b) urms, (c) vrms, (d) u’v’.

BCD

CD

Figure 18. SAS-SST simulation for flow around atriangular cylinder using the BCD and the CD scheme
for the convective fluxes.

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD // 20

The flow structures from the SAS-SST computations of the non-reacting
and the reacting flow at a given instance in time are shown in Figure 21
using the Q-criterion (Q=2×107 1/s2, see 7.1). The main turbulence structures
seem to be captured well in the simulations. Clearly, small-scale turbulencecannot be resolved on such a grid. The grid resolution used here should not
be considered as a recommendation for combustion chambers, but as thelowest limit for which such SRS models can be applied.
Figure 22 shows a comparison of the standard- RANS and SAS results
at a given distance from the burner entrance. It is just to show the levelof improvement which results from the application of SRS methods.
Many more details of this simulation can be found in Egorov et al. (2010)
or in a more detailed analysis of a more complex combustion chamber in
Widenhorn et al. (2009).

Figure 19. Computational domain for the ITS swirl
burner.

/ 4.2. Locally Unstable Flows
4.2.1. Flow Physics
The expression ‘locally unstable flows’ is not easily definable as every
turbulent flow is by nature unstable. It is meant to characterize flows which
also produce ‘new’ turbulence, typically downstream of a geometry change,
but where the flow instability producing this turbulence is significantly
weaker than for globally unstable flows.
Consider the computation of a mixing layer starting from two wall boundary
layers with different freestream velocities in RANS mode (see Figure 23).
As the flat plate ends, the two boundary layers form a turbulent mixing
layer, which becomes relatively quickly independent of the turbulence ofthe two boundary layers on the flat plate (yellow circles). The mixing layer
instability (red) provides for a de-coupling of the boundary layer and themixing layer turbulence. For this reason, one can neglect the boundary layer
turbulence downstream of the trailing edge (the dashed yellow boundary
layer turbulence sketched in Figure 23) and concentrate on using SRS mode
to resolve the mixing layer turbulence, which will quickly dominate the flow.

Figure 20. Unstructured grid on the symmetry planeand boundary locations for the ITS swirl burner andrelevant length scale, L.

a)b)

Examples of locally unstable flows:•

Generic Flows:-

All equilibrium free-shear flows emanating from walls (jets, wakes,
mixing layers).

-

Backward-facing step flow.

-

Weakly interacting equilibrium flows.

-

Flows with weak swirl.

Figure 21. SAS solution for ITS combustion chamber,
iso-surface Q=1/2(S2- 2)=2×107 s-2 (a) non-reacting, (b)reacting flow.

Figure 22. Reacting flow velocity profiles at the axial
distance from the inlet x=103 mm (a) Axial velocity, (b)Tangential velocity.

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD //21

4.2.2. Modeling
The goal in SRS is to cover the boundary layer turbulence (solid yellow circles
in Figure 23) in RANS and the mixing layer turbulence (red) in resolved
mode. This can only be achieved if the impact of the RANS turbulencemodel is significantly reduced downstream of the trailing edge; otherwise
the formation of unsteady structures would be suppressed.
The SAS model will typically not switch to SRS mode in such situations,
independent of the mesh provided, as the eddy-viscosity produced in the
mixing layer will be too large for the flow instability at hand. From a pureturbulence modeling standpoint, this is often acceptable, as such flows are
typically covered with reasonable accuracy by using RANS models (mixing
layers, wakes, back step, etc.). However, in cases where unsteady informationis required for other reasons (e.g. acoustics), the SAS model will likely not
be suitable, unless an interface is used that converts modeled turbulenceenergy into resolved energy (see section 3.7).

Figure 23. Schematic of locally unstable flow: Mixing
layer originating from a flat plate with two boundary
layers of different freestream velocity. Full yellow circles– boundary layer turbulence. Dashed yellow circles-remains of the boundary layer turbulence. Red arrows –new mixing layer turbulence.

DDES, SDES and SBES models allow SRS behavior, as the shielding function is turned off past the trailing edge of the plate, and the
eddy-viscosity is reduced, assuming a fine (LES) grid is provided downstream of the plate. These models then switches to LES mode in
the wake, and the mixing-layer instability is strong enough to generate resolved turbulence relatively quickly (within a few boundary
layer thicknesses). It is important to point out that the ability of the DDES/SDES/SBES models to generate unsteady structures in the
mixing layer depends on the grid provided in that area. Assuming an overly coarse grid (for example, in the spanwise direction), thegrid limiter would not engage and the model would stay in RANS mode, which will not allow the formation of resolved structures.
Remember that for the DES model, the length scale is defined as:with ∆max being the largest edge length for each cell. For this case, assume that the grid in the x-y plane shown in Figure 23 is very fine(of LES quality), and ∆max=∆z is the grid resolution in the spanwise (z) direction. Conversely, if ∆z is very coarse, the DES limiter would
always select the RANS length scale Lt and the model would remain in RANS mode in the wake region. No unsteady structures would
develop as the RANS model will damp them out. As the grid in the z-direction is refined, the DES limiter will be activated at somelocation downstream of the trailing edge where ∆z=Lt-max (note that Lt grows as the mixing layer becomes thicker). With further gridrefinement, the location of the implicit RANS-LES interface would move closer to the trailing edge. Eventually, the entire mixing layer
would be covered by LES. This behavior of (D)DES is both a disadvantage and an advantage. The disadvantage and the danger lie inthe strong grid sensitivity introduced explicitly into the turbulence model. As a result, the user of (D)DES (as well as SDES/SBES) must
be very careful to provide a suitable grid for a given application. The advantage is that the model can be applied to locally unstableflows without the definition of an explicit RANS-LES interface. However, the grid sensitivity can be reduced by employing an interface
which converts modeled turbulence to resolved turbulence using the DDES/SDES/SBES model upstream and downstream of theinterface (see section 3.7).
The most general approach to the flows discussed here is the use of the embedded or zonal RANS-LES methods, where the boundary
layers are covered by a RANS model and the mixing layer by a LES model. The models are explicitly switched from RANS to LES at a
pre-defined interface upstream or at the trailing edge. In order to obtain a proper LES solution, a grid with LES resolution is required in
the mixing layer. Frequently a non-conformal interface between the RANS and the LES part is used to reduce the grid resolution in the
upstream RANS region. For a fully consistent simulation, one must introduce synthetic turbulence at the RANS-LES interface. By such‘injection’ of synthetic turbulence, the balance between RANS and LES turbulence across the interface is preserved (e.g. the yellow
dashed circles in Figure 23 are accounted for).
The recommendation for flows with local instabilities is to use ELES/ZLES models if the geometry and the application allow thedefinition of well-defined interfaces (e.g. internal flows, like pipe flows etc.). Synthetic turbulence should be introduced at theseinterfaces in order to preserve the balance between the RANS and LES turbulence content. Should the geometry/application becomplex such that the definition of explicit RANS and LES zones is not easily possible (e.g. turbomchinery flows, external flows),
apply the DDES/SDES/SBES model. However, ensure careful tailoring of the grid with sufficient resolution on the LES region to avoid
undefined model behavior somewhere between RANS and LES mode. It is advisable to refrain from using conventional DES in flows
with extensive boundary layers, as the danger of affecting the boundary layers is too high. For such flows, the newest members of thefamily, namely the SBES models are recommended.
It is very important to understand that for locally unstable flows, failure to capture the instability of the Separating Shear Layer (SSL)
can have a pronounced effect on the solution downstream. The turbulence field is a result of this initial instability and missing it canseverely limit the resolved content of the simulation and contaminate a rather expensive SRS solution. This danger is much reducedwith ELES/ZLES models, (relative to DDES) because the flow enters the SSL with a prescribed synthetic turbulent content from the
RANS-LES interface.

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD // 22

4.2.3. Meshing Requirements
In order to generalize the concepts discussed for the mixing layer example (Figure 23), we introduce the terminology of a Separating
Shear Layer (SSL). It refers to the shear layer that starts at the point of separation from the body and moves into a free shear flow (weare not considering small separation bubbles embedded within the boundary layer). In Figure 23 this would be the mixing layer
forming downstream of the plate. In other flows it can be a separating boundary layer from a corner. In the case of locally unstableflows, the ∆max spacing should be sufficiently small to allow resolution of the initial flow instability of the SSL. The main quantity of
relevance is the ratio of RANS to grid length scale:

It is important to emphasize that this quantity should be evaluated based on a precursor RANS solution. This implies that such asolution exists and is meaningful. If the precursor solution is not available, then one can estimate the ratio based on the thickness of
SSL. For equilibrium mixing layers, the following ratio is approximately correct:

where δmixing is the thickness of the mixing layer. The value of RL should be:

where 0.2 should be considered an extreme lower limit of resolution and 0.1 the desirable lower limit. Again, higher grid resolution
should be used if computing power permits. The value of RL=0.1 corresponds to a resolution of ~15 cells across the mixing layer. This is
not a very fine grid resolution, but equal resolution should ideally be provided in all three space dimensions. In addition, the SSL canbe thin relative to the body dimensions, resulting in very high computational costs. The initial SSL instability is akin to a Helmholtz
instability and is initially two-dimensional. A two times coarser grid spacing in the spanwise direction is therefore acceptable.
It is not always possible to achieve such resolution directly from the onset of the separating shear layer, especially if this layer isvery thin relative to the body dimensions. This is not necessarily a problem as, typically, the thickness of the SSL increases strongly
downstream of the separation point/line. Therefore RL is decreasing relatively quickly and reaches sufficiently low values to provide therequired resolution. It is, however, important to note that for cases where the small scales play a significant role, such as in acoustics
simulations, the delay of the initial instability can result in a loss of spectral information at high wave numbers (small scales). It isadvisable to visually inspect the displayed results for the presence of the unsteady turbulent structures at the intended locations.
Of special concern are geometries with high aspect ratios, meaning a large domain size in the direction perpendicular to the SSL (longcylinders in crossflow, stalled wings of high aspect ratios, and so on). In such situations, it is not always possible to sufficiently resolve
the third direction. It might then be necessary to solve only a portion of the real flow domain in SRS mode, either by using suitableboundary conditions (e.g., periodicity in the spanwise direction) or by restricting the SRS to a limited portion of the domain.
4.2.4. Numerical Settings
The general numerical settings described in Section 5 should be applied. In addition, locally unstable flows can be very sensitive withrespect to numerics. For the application of the DDES/SDES/SBES models, the recommended choice for the advection terms is theBounded Central Difference (BCD) in the entire domain. The PRESTO pressure interpolation should be avoided in such simulations, as
it has been observed that this option can suppress the initial formation of resolved turbulence.
Experience suggests that the BCD scheme is also the most suitable choice when using ELES/ZLES methods. In some applications
with high demands on accuracy and where a high quality isotropic mesh can be provided in the LES region, the application of the CD
scheme in the LES zone might be advantageous.

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD // 23

4.2.5. Examples
Mixing Layer
The single-stream mixing layer flow is experimentally investigated in
Morris and Foss (2003). The experimental section consists of a flat plate
which suddenly terminates at a corner step (Figure 24), which induces theformation of the mixing layer from the separation point. The experiment iscarried out at a Reynolds number of Reθ=4650 based on the momentum
thickness θ0 of the incoming boundary layer and on the free-stream
velocity U0.

Figure 24. The domain and grid for the single stream
mixing layer flow.

The inlet of the computational domain shown in Figure 24 is located at x/θ0=-597, while the outlet boundary is located at x/θ0=208 (x/θ0=0 corresponds
to the step location). The size of the domain in the wall normal direction
is 104·θ0 upstream of the step and 208·θ0 downstream of it. Finally, in the
spanwise direction the domain is 41.6·θ0 wide.
Two computational grids are considered (Figure 24). Mesh 1 consistsof about 2.1∙106 hexahedral cells with the maximum grid step of 1.04∙θ0
downstream of the step. Mesh 2 consists of 7.6∙106 hexahedral cells andhas a maximum grid step of 0.52∙θ0 in the mixing layer region (spanwise
direction). It should be noted that both meshes have the same node
distribution upstream of the step with the grid steps in the wall normal
direction chosen to satisfy ∆yw<1 in the entire domain.

Figure 25. Iso-surfaces of the Q-criterion colored withthe velocity magnitude.

The boundary conditions are specified as follows (Figure 24). A constantvelocity U0 is specified at the flat plate inlet. Following the experimental
setup, a velocity of 0.035·U0 is set at the bottom inlet below the mixing
layer to provide the correct entrainment rate for a shear layer at zeropressure gradient and to ensure that the freestream velocity gradient in thestreamwise direction is approximately zero. A constant pressure is set at theoutlet boundary. No-slip conditions are utilized at solid walls. Finally, periodic
conditions are employed in the spanwise direction.
As seen from the instantaneous structures visualized with the use of
iso-surfaces of the Q-criterion (Figure 25), SBES and SDES provide a swift
development of three-dimensional turbulence downstream of the step,
while DDES yields almost two-dimensional structures in the entire domain
regardless of the used grid. For SDES, this rapid transition relative to DDES isbased on the alternative definition of the grid length scale and the reduced
CSDES constant. For SBES it is based on the activation of the low eddy
viscosity levels from the WALE model in the LES domain.

Figure 26. Profiles of the mean velocity profiles atdifferent sections (x/θ=19.3, 29.6, 40.6, and 54.2) for
mixing layer test case.

Due to the much faster transition from RANS to LES, both, the SDES and the
SBES model show superior agreement with the experiments in terms of thevelocity profiles compared to DDES. Similar performance could be obtainedwith DDES only under severe grid refinement – meaning that SDES/SBES
can produce more realistic solutions on much coarser grids than required
for DDES.
Backward-Facing Step I
This flow has been experimentally studied by Vogel and Eaton (1985) for
Re=p∙U0∙H/μ=28000 (U0 is the bulk velocity at the inlet section, H is the stepheight, p is the constant density, and μ is the constant dynamic viscosity).
The expansion ratio relative to the upstream plane channel is 1.25.

Figure 27. The domain and grid for the backward-facing
step flow.

The computational domain (Figure 27) extends from x/H=-3.8 at the inlet tox/H=20 at the outlet (x/H=0 corresponds to the step location), while in the
spanwise direction it has the length of 4∙H. The computational grid shownin Figure 27 consists of 2.8∙106 hexahedral cells with maximum steps in theBest Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD // 24streamwise and spanwise directions of 0.1∙H and 0.05∙H respectively, whichcorresponds to ∆x+=200 and to ∆z+=100 in the wall units. The steps in thewall normal direction correspond to ∆y+<1 along all walls in the domain.
The boundary conditions are specified as shown in Figure 27. The inflow
profiles are obtained from the precursor SST-RANS simulation of thedeveloping plane channel flow up to the experimental boundary layer
thickness of 0=H. Periodic conditions are applied in the spanwise
direction. No-slip conditions are specified on the solid walls. At the outlet
boundary a constant pressure is specified, while the other transported
quantities are extrapolated from the domain interior.

Figure 28. Iso-surfaces of the Q-criterion colored withthe velocity magnitude for backstep.

A non-dimensional time step of ∆t=0.02∙H/U0 ensures that the CFL number
is less than one in the entire domain. The instantaneous flow fields areaveraged over 5000 time steps in order to achieve a sufficient time sample
for the unsteady statistics.
As seen from iso-surfaces of the Q-criterion shown in Figure 28, SBES and
SDES provide visually similar turbulent structures downstream of the step,
while relatively larger structures are observed for DDES. It can also beseen that the SBES and SDES blending functions cover a relatively smaller
portion of the flow near the bottom wall than those of DDES (Figure 29),
while in the channel center the SDES and SBES models work in the RANS
mode. DDES also remains in RANS mode there, but this is not visible due tothe lack of grid information in the DDES shielding function. DDES provides
a relatively larger eddy viscosity level in the mixing zone compared to thoseof SBES and SDES as can be seen from Figure 30. Again, this explains thelarger turbulent structures observed in this region with DDES.
However, despite the above differences, the skin friction coefficient
distribution depicted in Figure 31 along the bottom wall shows that theresults of all the models are in a good agreement with the experimental
data. However, the DDES model shows a slightly too large separation zone
and a slight over-prediction of Cf-recovery downstream of the reattachment
point. Finally, the mean and RMS velocity profiles for all the considered
models agree fairly well with the experimental data. The better prediction
for the backstep as compared to the mixing layer above is not surprising,as the mesh for the backstep has been designed for the DDES model.
It features lower grid spacing (relative to the upstream boundary layer
thickness) in spanwise direction compared to the mixing layer case.

Figure 29. Contours of the blending function with thevorticity iso-lines for backstep.

/ 4.3. Stable Flows and Wall Boundary Layers
4.3.1. Flow Physics
Stable flows in this context are characterized by a continuous developmentof the turbulence field. For such flows, the turbulence at a certain location
depends strongly/entirely on the turbulence upstream of it. There is no
mechanism for quickly generating ‘new’ turbulence and over-riding the
upstream turbulence field. Stable flows in the context of this discussion are
essentially wall-bounded flows - either attached or with small separation
bubbles.

•

Generic Flows:-

Channel and pipe flows (attached and mildly separated).

-

Boundary layers (attached and mildly separated).

Figure 30. Contours of the eddy viscosity ratio forbackstep.

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD // 25

4.3.2. Modeling
For stable flows, the use of embedded or zonal RANS-LES methods with a well-defined interface between the RANS and the LES zone
is essential. Synthetic turbulence must be introduced at the RANS-LES interface to ensure a proper balance between the modeled
and the resolved content of turbulence. The introduction of resolved/synthetic turbulence allows the balance between RANS and LES
turbulence across the interface to be preserved (assuming the synthetic turbulence is of sufficient quality). Neither DDES nor SAS-typemodels are able to switch from RANS to SRS mode in such stable situations. Even in cases where resolved turbulence is specified at the
inlet (or an interface) the SAS model will typically switch back to their underlying RANS mode after some boundary layer thicknesses(e.g. Davidson 2006). The DDES model does remain in LES mode but with a significant error in the logarithmic layer. The SBES model isable to perform in WMLES mode and provide proper velocity profiles downstream of synthetically generated turbulence.
Even an explicit switch from a RANS to a LES model (and the corresponding grid refinement in the LES zone) at the interface without
an introduction of synthetic turbulence would not work well. If sufficient resolution is provided in the LES zone, the flow would
eventually go through a transitional process and recover the fully turbulent state. However, such a process would require manyboundary layer thicknesses, with an entirely unbalanced model formulation in-between. This is not acceptable in most technical flows
and must be avoided.
In such stable flows, the most suitable selection of hybrid RANS-LES models are Embedded- or Zonal models, where the RANS andthe LES zones are defined by the user and synthetic turbulence is injected at the RANS-LES interface. As mentioned previously,
the RANS-LES interface should be placed in a non-critical region of the flow (equilibrium flow), since existing synthetic turbulence
generators do not provide realistic turbulent fluctuations for strongly non-equilibrium flows. As a result, placing the interface in suchregions results in a too-slow relaxation from synthetic to “real” turbulence (typically, several boundary layer thicknesses).
As an alternative, the RANS and LES simulations can be carried out separately. The RANS domain would include the full geometry
whereas the LES solution can be carried out on a smaller portion of the original domain. This separate LES domain would be identicalto the LES zone in the equivalent ELES setup. The information from the ‘larger’ RANS solution can then be mapped onto theboundaries of the LES domain. Synthetic turbulence should be introduced at the inlet of the LES domain. This approach can be used if
one is confident that the physical decoupling has very little or no effect onto the overall flow topology. The advantage of the decoupled
method over the ELES approach is that the RANS solution does not have to carry the burden of the excessive temporal resolution that
the LES domain would have otherwise required. However, one should be aware that some scripting is required for mapping the resultsfrom RANS to LES in the decoupled approach.
The models selected in the RANS and LES zone depend on the flow physics. In the RANS zone, a suitable model for the flow should
be selected. In the LES zone, the use of a WMLES formulation is typically recommended for wall boundary layers in order to avoid
the unfavorable Reynolds number scaling of classical LES models. For free shear flows, the WALE model should provide optimal
performance.
4.3.3. Meshing Requirements
Figure 32 shows the schematic of an ELES setup. There is a central area (red) which is the domain of interest (for example, a boundary
layer with a separation bubble). This area is not specifically defined in the ELES setup, but is just used to demonstrate how such a zone
would be handled. Clearly, one would not place the LES zone (green) directly at the start of the zone of interest, but extend it upstream
and downstream of that region by several boundary layer thicknesses as indicated in Figure 28. For fully developed pipe/channel flow,
the boundary layer thickness should be estimated as ½ of the pipe diameter/channel height. The LES zone is then embedded into alarger RANS zone (blue).
The meshing requirements are those of the underlying turbulence models. In the RANS zone typical RANS resolution requirements
should be satisfied (20-30 cells across the wall boundary layer with possibly a y+~1 and 15-20 cells across free shear flows).
In the LES zone, the resolution requirements depend on the details of the LES model formulation and the flow type. For free shear
flows, cubic grid cells with a minimum of ~15-20 cells per shear layer thickness should be used. For wall-bounded flows, the resolution
requirements are those described in Section 3.3 for classical LES and in Section 3.6 for WMLES.

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD // 26

For wall-bounded flows, it is clear that large domains cannot be covered
in SRS mode, even when using WMLES. In most cases one would limit thedomain size of the LES zone by one or more of the following concepts:•

Use only a limited spanwise domain size.

--

Apply periodic boundary conditions where appropriate – however,the domain size has to cover a minimum of 3-5 boundary layer
thicknesses in the spanwise direction to avoid inaccuracies causedby the spanwise periodicity condition. Care must be taken that
this requirement is satisfied for the entire LES domain. In casethe boundary layer grows in the streamwise direction, the mostdownstream location is relevant for the estimate.

Figure 32. Sketch of embedded LES (ELES) domain.

In cases where no periodicity can be applied, place the spanwise
interfaces into a region of limited interest.

•

Place the upstream RANS-LES interface economically to reduce the size of the LES domain. However, the interface should belocated in a zone of ‘undisturbed’ equilibrium flow. Place the RANS-LES interface at a minimum of ~3 boundary layer thicknesses
upstream of the zone of interest (e.g. a separation region). Limit the size of the RANS-LES interface to the shear layer to capture;that is, do not extend the interface far into the freestream, as the code will then generate resolved turbulence in freestream
regions where no LES is required. The Vortex Method (VM) would also generate a large number of vortices if the RANS-LES
interface were too large.

•

Place the downstream LES-RANS interface economically to reduce the size of LES domain. However, do not place the interface
immediately downstream of the zone of interest but several boundary layer thicknesses farther downstream to avoid any negative
influence of the downstream RANS model (e.g. let the boundary layer recover several boundary layer thicknesses downstream of aseparation before switching back to RANS).

•

Limit the height of the LES zone. However, allow for some space above the boundary layer. Typically the LES zone should be about
twice as thick as the boundary layer.

In order to check the quality of the simulation, sensitive quantities like time-averaged wall shear stress should be plotted across the
RANS-LES zones. There should be no large jump in those quantities and the unavoidable disturbance caused by the interface should
be recovered before entering the zone of interest.
4.3.4. Numerical Settings
Zonal methods typically allow a separate selection of numerical settings in the RANS and LES zones. For very sensitive simulations, one
can therefore select a pure central difference (CD) in the LES domain, while using an appropriate numerical scheme in the RANS parts.
However, one can also select a global scheme, in which case the bounded central difference (BCD) scheme is recommended.
4.3.5. Examples
Periodic Channel
The periodic channel flow is not an ELES, but a WMLES application. It is however shown in this section of the report as WMLES is
typically used in the LES portion of ELES/ZLES applications. The entire domain is WMLES and there are no RANS-LES interfaces.
Simulations of this flow have been carried out assuming incompressible fluid at several Reynolds numbers based on friction
velocity u and channel height h=H/2, Re=395, 760, 1100, 2400, and 18000. The flow is driven by a constant pressure gradient
dp/dx=-2∙p· u u /H, where p is the pressure and p is the density. This pressure gradient is taken into account in the governing
equations via a source term in the momentum equations, which allows the use of periodic boundary conditions not only in the
spanwise direction z, but also in the streamwise direction x. Note that within such an approach, the bulk velocity of the flow is not
specified and should be obtained as a part of the solution, which means that it could be different with different turbulence models.
Alternatively, one can specify the mass flow and the solver will adjust the imposed pressure gradient accordingly.

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD // 27

The size of the computational domain shown in Figure 33 is equal to 4H
in the streamwise direction and 1.5H in the spanwise direction. For all
considered Reynolds numbers, the computational grid is unchanged in
the streamwise and spanwise directions with a uniform grid-spacing of
0.05H and 0.025H, respectively. This gives 10 cells per channel half width,
h=H/2, (h being the relevant boundary layer thickness) in the streamwiseand 20 cells per h in the spanwise direction. Different grids have beenused in the wall-normal direction. This arrangement provides a sufficient
resolution (∆y+w<1 near the wall) at different Reynolds numbers. Note,however, that all simulations could have been performed on the finest
grid. The non-dimensional time step is UΔt/H=0.02 which ensures that the
CFL number is CFL<0.5 in the entire domain. The solution was averaged
in time over 5000 time steps. Table 3 gives the details of the grids usedin the simulations and the resulting non-dimensional grid spacing. Notethat classical wall-resolved LES would require values of ∆x+<40, ∆z+<20,
demonstrating the substantial savings that can be achieved with WMLES
for higher Re numbers. The y+range in Table 3 covers the range of y+values in
the wall normal direction, with the largest values located at the center of thechannel.

Figure 33. Computational domain and grid for WMLESof channel flow.

Figure 34. Turbulence structures for WMLES of channel
flow at lowest Reynolds number (Q=350 [s-2]).

Figure 34 shows the turbulence structures using the Q-criterion (Q=350 [s-2]).
The color of the iso-surface is the streamwise velocity.
Figure 35 shows the flow in a horizontal cut through the domain forthe lowest and the highest Reynolds numbers. The thin region of RANS
modeling near the wall for the high Reynolds number is indicated by
the high eddy-viscosity (note the different scales in the plot for the
eddy-viscosity ratio for the different Reynolds numbers). RANS modelingin this context is as described in Section 3.6, based on the near-wall mixing
length formulation.

Figure 35: Flow visualization for WMLES of channel flow
. (b) absolute value of velocity U (c) Ratio(a) Vorticity
of eddy-viscosity to molecular viscosity.

Ret

Cells Number

Nodes Number

∆x+

∆y+

∆z+

395

384,000

81x81x61

40.0

0.2÷3020.0

760

480,000

81x101x6176.9

0.2÷3038.5

1100

480,000

81x101x61

111.4

0.2÷3055.7

2400

528,000

81x111x61

243.0

0.2÷30

121.5

18000

624,000

81x131x61

1822.70.2÷30911.4

Table 3. Grid resolution for WMLES channel flow simulations.

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD // 28

Results of the WMLES formulation and their comparison with the empiricalcorrelation of Reichart (1951) are shown in Figure 36. It can be seen that the
WMLES solutions reproduce the logarithmic layer with good accuracy. Thereis a slight kink at the switch from the RANS to the LES formulation, but it ismoderate and does not affect global properties such as the wall shear stress.
The above simulations have been carried out with Ansys Fluent. Similar
results can be obtained with Ansys CFX, where WMLES is the default
formulation inside the LES zone of the ZFLES method.
The same test case has been computed with the global hybrid RANS-LES
models. In order to push them into unsteady SRS mode, the simulations arestarted from the WMLES solution above. Please note that the DDES model
is not shown, as it would produce a severe shift in the logarithmic velocity
profile. The IDDES model shown for comparison has been calibrated for
WMLES applications, it does however have only limited shielding capabilities
and is therefore not suitable for general industrial applications.
As seen from Figure 37, all the models provide resolved turbulent structures
for both considered Reynolds number. The results of SBES (combinationof SST and WALE) and IDDES are visually close to each other with a finer
resolution provided by the IDDES model. The near wall resolved turbulence
is noticeably reduced by SDES for both Reynolds numbers.

Figure 36. Resolved normal stresses, turbulent kinetic
energy and mean velocity profiles for WMLES at
different Reynolds numbers.

As seen from Figure 38, SDES lacks resolved turbulence near the wall due toa substantially higher peak of the eddy viscosity resulting from a noticeable
shift of the RANS-LES interface away from the wall. SBES also yields a
noticeably higher eddy viscosity peak than IDDES but much reduced
relative to SDES.
Interestingly, the profiles of the mean velocity as shown in Figure 39 arein a good agreement with each other and with the empirical correlation
for all models. It should be noted, that, despite SDES yielding the smallest
magnitude of the LLM (Figure 39), it noticeably underestimates the total
turbulence kinetic energy (Figure 40) for both Reynolds numbers. This
indicates that the wall modeled LES capabilities of SDES is not optimal forthe given meshes. At the same time, the profiles of the total kinetic energyof SBES and IDDES are relatively close to each other, which mean that themodels have similar wall modeled LES capabilities. The results also indicatethat further improvements in terms of WMLES resolution could be obtainedby moving the RANS-LES interface slightly closer to the wall.
Wall Boundary Layer

Figure 37. Iso-surfaces of the Q-criterion colored withthe velocity magnitude.

Figure 38. Profiles of the eddy viscosity ratio for different
models.

The zero pressure gradient wall boundary layer is a benchmark test casewhich is commonly used for turbulence model investigation due to its
geometric and physical simplicity. Unlike the periodic channel test case, thewall boundary layer needs unsteady boundary conditions because there isno periodicity in the streamwise direction. In the current simulations, theVortex Method (VM) was used for these purposes (Mathey et al., 2003).
Figure 39. Profiles of the mean velocity for different
models.

Figure 40. Profiles of the total turbulence kinetic energy
for different models.

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD // 29

Reθ [-]

1000

10,000

Inlet boundary layer thickness δo [m]

0.032

0.032

∆t [s]

0.001

0.001

[Pa.s]

4.4483x10-6

4.4483x10-7

p [kg.m-3]

1.0

1.0

Table 4. Properties for flat plate boundary layer simulations.

ReΘ

Cells Number

Nodes Number

∆x+

∆y+

∆z+

1,000

1,085,000

251x71x63

68.0

0.30÷0.80

34.0

10,0001,333,000

251x87x63680.0

0.25÷0.60

340.0

Table 5. Information on grids for flat plate test case.

A computational domain for this test case is shown in Figure 41. The
characteristic length, which determines the geometry, is the plate length, L,of 1 [m] in the current study. Dimensions of the computational domain in x,y and z directions are equal to L, 0.4·L and 0.1·L, respectively.
The simulations have been performed for an incompressible fluid. A
summary of physical parameters is presented in Table 4.
The geometry and the computational grid used for the test case areshown in Figure 42. The base grid is uniform in the x- and z-directions
with spacings of 0.004 [m] and 0.002 [m], respectively. In the wall normal
direction the grid was expanded by a factor of 1.15. For all computations thevalue of ∆y+ is less than 1, which means that the governing equations areintegrated to the wall. A complete summary of all used grids is presented inTable 6.
Figure 42b presents all the boundary condition types used in thesimulations. The cyan color shows one of the periodic planes, the red color
the no-slip wall boundary, the blue color the outlet boundary, the green
color the inlet boundary and the yellow color the symmetry boundary.

Figure 41. Computational domain for a Wall Boundary
Layer test case.

Two cases have been computed using the numerical grids with theparameters shown in Table 6. They have different inlet Reynolds numbers
which are based on the boundary layer momentum thickness (Reθ).
The Non-Iterative Time Advancement (NITA) algorithm based on Fractional
Time Step method was applied with the second order scheme for theapproximation of time derivatives. The convective terms in the momentum
equations have been approximated with the second order central difference
scheme and the Green-Gauss cell-based method was used for interpolationof variables on cell faces. The Standard option was selected for the pressureinterpolation scheme.
Visualizations of the flow at two values of Reθ are shown in Figure 43.
Iso-surfaces of the Q-criterion that are equal to 200 [s-2] and colored withthe velocity magnitude are depicted. It can be seen that the turbulence
structures are well-developed and do not show any visual decay or
disruption downstream of the inlet. This indicates that the Vortex Method
provides sufficiently realistic turbulent content at the inlet boundary.

Figure 42. Computational grid (a), (c) and appliedboundary conditions (b).

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD // 30

Figure 44 shows the skin-friction coefficient for the two Reynolds numbers.
The results demonstrate that the inlet wall friction provided by the RANS
inlet velocity profiles is maintained without any major disruption. This
indicates again that the vortex method produces sensible synthetic inlet
turbulence. In addition, the models react properly to the Reynolds number
variation, suggesting that the WMLES can maintain a boundary layer
accurately even at high Reynolds numbers, where standard LES models
would fail due to a lack of resolution. Figure 44(a) shows the impact of thepressure interpolation scheme, which has proven to be critical for locallystable flows. It is worth reiterating that the PRESTO scheme requires slightly
more ‘running length’ to recover the correct levels of turbulence and wall
shear stress.
Figure 45 shows Reynolds stresses and velocity profiles from thesimulations. The figure suggests that, just as for the channel flow, the qualityof the simulations is fairly high in terms of both the mean flow prediction(the logarithmic profile is reproduced faithfully) and Reynolds stresses (theyare well within the range expected from known DNS studies of the flat plateboundary layer).

Figure 43. Iso-surfaces of Q-criterion (Q=200 [s-2])
colored with velocity for a flat plate at two different
Reynolds numbers.

The above simulations have been carried out with Ansys Fluent. Similar
results can be obtained with Ansys CFX where WMLES is the default
formulation inside the LES zone of the ZFLES method.
NASA Hump Flow
A challenging test case for ELES in combination with WMLES wascomputed within the EU project ATAAC. The case models the flow over a
hump with a relatively large separation zone on the leeward side. Figure 46
shows the experimental setup (Greenblatt et al., 2005). Due to the limited
separation zone, this flow would be categorized as a stable flow in thepresent context.
The flow was computed with Ansys-Fluent 13.0 using the SST model in
the RANS zone, the vortex method at the RANS-LES interface and thealgebraic WMLES option in the LES zone. The Reynolds number, based on
the free-stream velocity, U∞, and hump chord, C, is equal to 9.36×105. The
simulation was carried out in the full domain, which extends from -2.14C to
4C (0 corresponds to the hump beginning). In the spanwise direction, theextent of the domain is 0.2C. The inflow boundary conditions for RANS havebeen set based on the preliminary flat plate boundary layer computations
up to the flow section x/C= 2.14 (Reθ=7200), where the parameters of theincoming boundary layer have been measured in the experiment. At theupper wall of the channel, free-slip wall conditions have been specified.
The grid in the LES zone (see Figure 47) consists of 200×100×100 cells andwas designed to provide 10×40×20 cells per boundary layer volume in thestreamwise, wall normal and spanwise directions. The RANS grid is muchcoarser, especially in the spanwise direction. Figure 47 also presents a
visualization of the turbulent structures in the LES zone that suggests ahigh resolution provided by the simulation (note that the momentum
thickness Reynolds number at the inlet to the LES domain is relatively
high (Reθ=7000)). In retrospect, the setup might not be fully optimal, as
the RANS-LES interface is placed relatively close to the non-equilibrium/
separation zone of the boundary layer. There are only about two boundary
layer thicknesses between the interface and the bend of the geometry. A
more optimal grid should cover more of the upstream boundary layer andallow the synthetic turbulence to develop over a longer running length.

Figure 44. Skin friction distributions along a flat
plate predicted by WMLES at two Reynolds numbers(a) Reθ=1000 with different numerical settings (b)Reθ=10000.

Figure 45. Profiles of resolved normal and shear
Reynolds stresses and mean velocity in the flat plateboundary layer predicted by WMLES at two Reynolds
numbers (a) Reθ=1000 with different numericalsettings (b) Reθ=10000 with the second order pressureinterpolation.

Figure 46. Experimental setup up for NASA hump flow
experiment.

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD //31

Figure 48 shows the skin-friction and wall-pressure coefficient distributions
from the simulations. It can be seen that the use of ELES combined with
the WMLES model in the LES zone results in very close agreement withthe data, even though the skin-friction is known to be very sensitive tosimulation details. A comparison of the results obtained using WMLES withthose obtained using the standard WALE model in the LES zone is shown in
Figure 48. The results suggest that the latter performs considerably worse
than the former. In particular, in the simulations using the WALE model,
the wall shear stress drops immediately after the RANS-LES interface tounrealistically small values due to the lack of resolution. The results with thismodel further downstream are therefore no longer reliable as the wall shear
stress has a strong influence on the overall boundary layer development.
Further investigations of this flow are on-going – so the results should
not be considered final, but are provided only to demonstrate the basic
concepts.
T-Junction with Thermal Mixing
The following example is a flow through a pipe T-junction with two streams
at different temperatures from Westin et al. (2006). This test case was used
as a benchmark of the OECD to evaluate CFD capabilities for reactor safety
applications. This flow is not easily categorized in the current framework. It
can be placed somewhere between a globally and a locally unstable flow. As
shown below, this flow can be modeled with SAS and DDES, but special caremust be taken in choosing the numerical settings (note that this flow has
been computed with SDES and SBES models recently and the solutions are
similar to the SAS and DDES model results).

Figure 47. (a) Grid used for the NASA hump simulation(b) Turbulent structures in the LES domain (Q-criterioncolored with spanwise velocity component).

The setup consists of a horizontal pipe for the cold water flow, and a
vertically oriented pipe for the hot water flow. The hot water pipe is attachedto the upper side of the horizontal cold water pipe. In the experiments, thelength of the straight pipes upstream of the T-junction is more than 80
diameters for the cold water inlet, and approximately 20 diameters for the
hot water inlet. The flow conditions are listed in Table 6.
A sketch of the domain is depicted in Figure 49. The domain dimensions
are as follows. The hot leg inlet is located at the z/D=22 section, the cold leg
inlet is located at the x/D=-27 section and the outlet is located at x/D=142,
with D being the diameter of the cold leg of the pipe. When ELES was used,
two additional interfaces have been introduced in the domain, where thesynthetic fluctuations generated with the use of the Vortex Method havebeen specified. These sections have been placed at z/D=0.7 in the hot leg
and at x/D=-1.0 in the cold leg.

Figure 48. (a) Skin-friction, cf, and (b) wall pressure
coefficients, cp, from NASA hump flow simulations.
Comparison of WMLES and WALE LES methods in the
LES domain.

Diameter

Bulk velocity

Volume flow

Temperature

Re number

Hot Pipe

100 [mm]1.53 [m.s-1]

12 [1/s]

30o [C]

Re=1.9.105

Cold Pipe

140 [mm]

1.56 [m.s-1]

24 [1/s]

15o [C]

Re=1.9.105

Table 6. Flow conditions for T-Junction test case.

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD // 32

The computational grid for this flow comprises about 4.9 million hexahedral
cells (see Figure 49). The wall normal grid spacing was set to 0.0001 [m]which yields ∆y+=0.2-9.0 in the entire domain. The grid spacing in the axial
and circumferential directions was set as follows. For the cold water pipe
where the inlet boundary layer thickness δcold is equal to 0.07 [m], the grid
spacing was chosen ∆axial=0.0035 [m] and ∆circ=0.0021 [m], which yields
δhot/∆axial≈20 and δhot/∆circ≈33. For the hot water pipe the inlet boundary
layer thickness δhot was set to 0.022 [m] and the grid spacing was chosen∆axial=0.0035 [m] and ∆circ=0.0014[m] , which yields δhot/∆axial≈6 and δhot/∆circ≈15.
In wall units, the grid spacing is (∆axial+, ∆circl+)≈(195, 80) for the hot water pipeand (∆axial+, ∆circl+)≈(115, 70) for the cold water pipe, which means that the flow
requires near-wall turbulence modeling. The time step was set to 0.001 [s],which leads to CFL~1 in the central mixing zone.
The boundary conditions for this case have been specified as follows. For
the inlet boundaries, the precursor simulations of the pipe flow have been
performed using the SST model. For the cold water pipe, a fully developed
pipe flow was calculated using the SST model and the profiles of velocity
and turbulence quantities have been specified at the inlet boundary. For
the hot leg and the pipe, the profiles in the experiments were not fully
developed. For this reason, a separate pipe flow simulation was conductedusing constant inlet values for velocity and turbulence. The inlet profiles forthe hot leg have then been extracted from this precursor simulation at thelocation where they matched the experimental profiles most closely.
It bears repeating that this flow is not easily categorized into one of thethree groups described above, but might be described as between globally
unstable and locally unstable. It was originally computed with the global
SAS and DDES models. Although both simulations turn into a proper SRS
mode in the interaction zone of the two streams, the results turned out
to be very sensitive to numerical details and solver settings, especially for
the SAS model. As an illustration, in Figure 50, the turbulence structuresare shown as predicted by the SAS-SST model with the use of the CD and
BCD numerical schemes: the effect of the scheme on the resolved flow
is striking. This is an indication that the underlying flow instability is notvery strong and can only be represented by the SAS model with the useof a low dissipative numerical scheme such as CD in this particular case.
Under such conditions, it is not advisable to apply global methods likeSAS (and to a lesser extent, DDES), as will be seen from the temperature
distributions later. It is important to emphasize that in more unstable flows,
the difference between CD and BCD is not nearly as strong and often barely
noticeable.
It is therefore recommended to apply the ELES model with synthetic
turbulence specified at predefined RANS-LES interfaces located in both
pipes upstream of the interaction zone. Switch from the RANS to LES atthese interfaces using the vortex method. In this case, the SST model was
employed in the RANS zone and the WMLES approach was used in the
LES part of the domain. As seen in Figure 51, with this approach resolved
turbulence is generated well-upstream of the interaction zone and is thenmaintained through the interaction zone independent of the numerical
scheme (CD or BCD).
Figure 52(a) and (b) show velocity profiles of different velocity components
at different measurement locations (see Figure 49). Figure 52(a) shows
results for the DDES, ELES/WMLES and SAS simulations using the
CD scheme. All simulations agree well with each other and with theexperimental data. Figure 52(b) shows the same models, but computed
using the BCD scheme. As discussed, the SAS/BCD model shows marked
differences compared with the experimental data, as already expectedfrom Figure 50. It stays in URANS mode, which for this case turns out to beinadequate. The other models are less sensitive to the numerical setup andprovide almost identical results when using the BCD and the CD scheme.

Figure 49. Geometry and grid of T-Junction test casewith measurement planes.

Figure 50. Turbulence structures for SAS-SST model (a)Central Difference (CD) scheme. (b) Bounded Central
Difference (BCD) scheme.

Figure 51. Vorticity contours for ELES/WMLES simulation(a) CD scheme (b) BCD scheme.

Figure 53. Comparison of the experimental andcomputational wall temperature distributions for
T-Junction flow at the Top wall (0° - Figure 49) of themain pipe.

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD // 33

From an application-oriented standpoint, the most important outcome ofthese simulations is the thermal mixing and the resulting wall temperature
distributions. Results for the different simulations are shown in Figure
53-Figure 56. The comparison is depicted for four lines located on the wallof the main pipe downstream of the intersection at the Top (0°), Front (90°),
Bottom (180°) and Rear (270°) (see Figure 49). One can find significant
differences between the global and the ELES formulations, especially on
the top wall. The temperature mixing is more accurately predicted with the
ELES model because the transitional process between RANS and LES is not
well-defined in global models. While the solution of global hybrid models ismuch better than URANS (not shown here), the details can still be missed in
the initial mixing zone. The ELES method is more consistent, as it provides
a clear interface where modeled and resolved turbulence are exchanged(RANS-LES interface with synthetic turbulence). Because of that, welldefined resolved turbulence is already present upstream of the junction,
thereby avoiding the ambiguities of the formation of resolved turbulence in
the interaction zone.
Details of the resolved turbulence can be seen in Figure 57 which shows
the region just downstream of the pipe intersection on the Top wall (0° Figure 49) where the temperature predictions between ELES and DDES
differ the most (Figure 53). ELES shows significantly stronger resolved
turbulence activity than DDES, confirming the arguments above. Morerecent simulations of this flow using the SBES model show similar solution
as DDES, but with smaller resolved turbulence structures.

/ 5. Numerical Settings for SRS

Figure 54. Comparison of the experimental andcomputational wall temperature distributions for
T-Junction flow at the Front wall (90° - Figure 49) of themain pipe.

Figure 55. Comparison of the experimental andcomputational wall temperature distributions for
T-Junction flow at the Bottom wall (180° - Figure 49) of
the main pipe.

/ 5.1. Spatial Discretization
5.1.1. Momentum
SRS models, as described in the previous section, serve the main purposeof dissipating the energy out of the turbulence spectrum at the limit of
the grid resolution. The eddy viscosity is defined to provide the correct
dissipation at the larger LES scales. This assumes that the numerical
scheme is non-dissipative and that all dissipation results from the LES
model. For this reason, one is required to select a numerical scheme in the
LES region with low dissipation, relative to the dissipation provided by a
subgrid LES model. Another strategy is to avoid the introduction of the LES(subgrid) eddy viscosity and provide all damping through the numerical
scheme. This approach is called MILES (Monotone Integrated Large Eddy
Simulation) (Boris et al. (1992)). In Ansys-CFD, the standard LES methodology
is followed, whereby the dissipation is introduced by an LES eddy viscosity
model and the numerical dissipation is kept at a low value.

Figure 56. Comparison of the experimental andcomputational wall temperature distributions for
T-Junction flow at the Rear wall (270° - Figure 49) of themain pipe.

In order to achieve low numerical dissipation, one cannot use the standard
numerical schemes for convection that were developed for the RANS
equations (e.g. Second Order Upwind Schemes – SOU), which are dissipativeby nature. In contrast, LES is carried out using Central Difference (CD)schemes. In industrial simulations, 2nd order schemes are typically employed,
however, in complex geometries with non-ideal grids, CD methods are
frequently unstable and produce unphysical wiggles (see Figure 58), which
can eventually destroy the solution. To overcome this problem, variations ofCD schemes have been developed with more dissipative character, but stillmuch less dissipative than Upwind Schemes. An example is the Bounded
Central Difference (BCD) scheme of Jasak et al. (1999).
Figure 57. Comparison of turbulence structures on the
Top wall downstream of the pipe intersection (a) DDES
model (b) ELES model.

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD // 34

The CD scheme can be used successfully for (WM)LES of simple flows on
optimal grids (typically hexahedral grids with low skew) such as channel orpipe flows, etc. For more complex geometries, ELES allows the reductionof the LES domain to a limited region with high quality grids. Under suchconditions, CD can be employed inside the LES portion of the grid, while
using a standard upwind biased scheme for the RANS part of the domain.
For global models, like SAS or DDES/SDES/SBES, involving RANS and LES
portions without a well-defined interface between them, most cases require
the use of the BCD scheme, which can also handle both the RANS and LES
domains with acceptable accuracy.
When using ELES in Ansys Fluent, one can also switch the numerical
scheme between the RANS and the LES regions (e.g. Cokljat et al., 2009) byhand.

Figure 58. Example of scheme oscillations in T-Junction
flow shown by vorticity: (a) CD, (b) BCD.

In Ansys CFX, the default for the SAS and DDES/SDES/SBES models is anumerical scheme that switches explicitly between a second order upwind
and the CD scheme, based on the state of the flow, using a switch proposed by Strelets (2001). This switching scheme is relatively
complex and it is advisable to apply the less complex BCD scheme that is also available in the code. In Ansys CFX there is an additionalparameter for the BCD scheme that allows a continuous variation of the scheme from BCD to CD. The parameter is called “CDS
Bound.” CDS Bound=1 applies only BCD and CDS Bound=0 applies only CD.
5.1.2. Turbulence Equations
The spatial discretization of the convection terms of the turbulence model is not critical in SRS, as the models are dominated by theirsource terms. The first order upwind scheme is therefore sufficient for these equations, but second order is also suitable. For SBES
(Fluent 17.0) numerical problems have been observed on complex grids with 2nd order turbulence numerics. 1st order numerics istherefore recommended. Note that this has little effect on the accuracy, as the RANS region is typically insensitive to this switch. In the
LES region, the two-equation model is over-written anyways by the alg. LES model.
5.1.3. Gradients (Ansys Fluent)
The selection of a specific gradient method is not of much relevance to SRSs on high quality hexahedral meshes. For skewed or
polyhedral meshes, the Least Square Method (LSM) is recommended. For the SAS model one should use the LSM, or the Green-Gauss
Node based (GGNB). The latter allows a slightly higher sensitivity to initial instabilities.
5.1.4. Pressure (Ansys Fluent)
SRS can be relatively sensitive to the pressure interpolation. Validation studies have shown that the PRESTO scheme is more dissipative
than the other options and should be avoided unless required for other reasons. For the validation studies, the standard pressureinterpolation was typically used.
/ 5.2. Time Discretization
5.2.1. Time Integration
Time integration should be carried out with the second order backward Euler scheme. This has proven of sufficient accuracy for a wide
range of applications. For turbulence (and other positive) variables, use the Bounded Second Order Implicit Euler scheme (this must be
selected in Ansys Fluent and is the default in Ansys CFX).
The time steps should be selected to achieve a Courant number of CFL≈1 in the LES part of the domain. For complex geometries andgrids with high stretching factors, the definition of the CFL number is not always very reliable (e.g. if the flow passes through a regionof highly stretched cells). In such situations, estimates can be built upon the physical dimensions of the shear layer to be resolved. If N
cubic cells would be required for resolving a shear layer (say N=15-20 across a mixing layer of thickness δ) and a certain CFL number is
to be achieved, then a time step ofBest Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD // 35

is required. Considering that δ is proportional to the RANS turbulent length scale Lt (with a constant of order 1), this estimate may befurther simplified to:Cμ=0.09. This means that the time step ∆t can be estimated on a pre-cursor RANS simulation.
One could also apply a more global estimate by assessing the through flow time. This is the time required by a fluid element to passthrough the LES domain of length L with velocity U: Ttf=L/U. With an estimate of how many cells, N, will be passed along this trajectory,
one obtains ∆t=Ttf/N·CFL.
5.2.2. Time Advancement and Under-Relaxation (Ansys Fluent)
There are several different settings for time advancement in Ansys Fluent. The first choice is between the Iterative (ITA) and theNon-Iterative Time Advancement (NITA). NITA works well on high quality grids and for flows with limited additional physical coupling
between the equations. This is just a general guideline; NITA should be checked for any new application as it can result in significant
CPU savings. Within NITA, the fractional step scheme is recommended; however, one must be very cautious and conservative withthe assessment of the time step size. An attempt to perform a simulation with CFL>1 can lead to an incorrect solution. In addition, one
should reduce residual tolerance for all equations to 0.0001.
For the ITA schemes (everything except NITA), the segregated solvers are typically faster than the coupled solver. The optimal choice
is in most cases the SIMPLEC scheme. The default under-relaxation parameters for this scheme are set for steady-state simulations.
For SRS model simulations, they should be changed to values as close as possible to 1 to improve iterative convergence. Typically, thenumber of inner iteration loops required with SIMPLEC depends on the complexity of the flow problem. The most critical quantity is
the mass conservation. Mass residuals should decrease by at least one order of magnitude every time step. With high under-relaxationand good grid quality, good solutions can often be achieved even with only two inner loops.
The coupled solver is slower per iteration, but can lead to more robust convergence and for complex cases can be advantageous. For
the coupled solver, one would typically also specify under-relaxation values of (or close to) 1. The number of inner loops is typicallyNinner~2-5. In Ansys CFX, the coupled solver is used in all simulations.
For flows with additional physics (multiphase, combustion and so on), the number of inner iterations per time step can increase for all
solvers.
It is important to emphasize that the optimal under-relaxation factors and the optimal number of inner iterations is case-dependent.
Some optimization might be required for achieving the most efficient results.

/ 6. Initial and Boundary Conditions/ 6.1. Initialization of SRS
In most cases it is best to initialize the SRS model using a RANS model solution. This is especially true for global hybrid RANS-LES
models (SAS, DDES/SDES/SBES) which are based on an underlying RANS model.
For pure LES or WMLES, Ansys Fluent offers an option for initializing the flow by converting turbulence from RANS to LES mode (solve/
initialize/init-instantaneous-vel) using a synthetic turbulence generation routine. This option should be used with caution as it can,at times, have a detrimental effect on the robustness of the simulation. It should be executed mainly for cases where no synthetic
turbulence is generated at an inlet/interface and where the inherent flow instability is not strong enough to generate resolved
turbulence on its own. A typical example would be the LES of a channel flow with periodic boundary conditions in the streamwise
direction. For such flows, the solver could return a laminar solution even at super-critical (turbulent) Reynolds numbers if no initial
disturbance is provided.
In Ansys CFX, synthetic turbulence is generated automatically in the first time step inside the LES region of a ZLES setup.

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD // 36

/ 6.2. Boundary Conditions for SRS
6.2.1. Inlet Conditions
Inlet conditions should be selected based on the physics of the flow and applied in a similar manner as RANS computations.
For global models (SAS, DDES/SDES/SBES), use standard (typically steady-state) RANS inlet conditions.
For LES or WMLES, provide synthetic turbulence at the inlet.
6.2.2. Outlet Conditions
If possible, outflow or average pressure is better than constant pressure outlet, as vortices carry non-constant pressure distributions
across the boundary. For certain acoustics calculations, like jet noise, use non-reflecting boundary conditions.
6.2.3. Wall Conditions
For all models except LES, use low y+ values of around y+=1. The models are, however, formulated in a y+-insensitive fashion, so larger
values of y+ can be tolerated as long as the overall boundary layer resolution is sufficient.
For LES, one would typically have to apply wall functions in order to avoid the large resolution requirements near the wall. The wall
resolution in streamwise (x), normal (y) and spanwise (z) directions are coupled.

6.2.4. Symmetry Versus Periodicity
In most cases, periodicity or slip conditions cannot be employed in regions that border on zones of resolved turbulence, even if thegeometry and the time-averaged flow are symmetric with respect to a given plane. The reason is that unsteady turbulence does notobey symmetry instantaneously. The application of symmetry boundaries would therefore impose an unphysical constraint onto theresolved scales. It is therefore essential to either compute the full domain, or to apply periodicity at such planes if possible (e.g. if there
is a matching plane at the other end of the domain).
Symmetry and slip wall conditions can be used if the resolved turbulence is confined to regions not touching these boundaries.
Periodicity conditions can lead to problems for axi-symmetric situations. As the radius approaches zero, the circumferential size of thedomain goes to zero, and periodicity conditions would not allow turbulence structures of finite size to exist. An example is the flow inan axi-symmetric pipe. If one were to compute that flow in a pipe segment with periodicity conditions in the circumferential direction,
one would restrict the size of the resolved eddies to zero near the axis. This is not correct and would substantially alter the solution.
Such a simulation would therefore have to be carried out in full 360° mode. Note that the situation would be different in the case of theflow through a ring segment, where the axis is excluded from the SRS domain. Periodicity could be applied in the case of (R2-R1)/R1<C
with R2 being the outer radius, R1 the inner radius of the segment and C being a constant of the order 1 or larger.

/ 7. Post-Processing and Averaging/ 7.1. Visual Inspection
The first and most important step in any SRS is the visual inspection of the turbulence structures. This is typically done using an
iso-surface of the Q-criterion. The definition of Q is:

where in different definitions the constant might be different (for historic reasons, CQ=0.5 in Ansys Fluent and CQ=0.25 in Ansys
CFD-Post). The value of the constant CQ is typically unimportant as we are only interested in visual impressions when using thisquantity. In this definition, S is the absolute value of the Strain Rate andthe absolute value of the vorticity.

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD // 37

The rationale behind this definition is that one wants to visualize vorticity, which characterizes turbulence vortices, but also to subtract
the mean shear rate in order to avoid displaying steady shear layers (where S= =1/2|dU/dy|).
There are different definitions of Q, some of them non-dimensional. Avoid using non-dimensional Q values as they can be mainly usedfor visualization of free vortices and their dynamics (e.g. tip vortex of an airplane wing). In turbulent flows, they can elevate very weakturbulence structures to the same level as the strong ones and thereby produce an incorrect picture.
In Ansys Fluent, the variable Q is called “Q criterion” (under ‘Turbulence’) and in Ansys CFD-Post “Velocity.Invariant Q” in the variable
list. Both codes also have a non-dimensional version of Q (Ansys Fluent: “Normalized q criterion”, Ansys CFD-Post: “Location / Vortex
Core Region, Method = Q-Criterion”), which are not as descriptive for turbulence vortex fields.
The dimensional Q-values can be very large and can vary greatly in the domain. Frequently, values up to Qmax~108[s-2] can be found inhigh Re number flows. In such cases, iso-surfaces in the range of Q~104-105[s-2] are typically sensible. One must experiment with somevalues for the iso-surface before obtaining a suitable picture. It might be helpful to first plot Q on a fixed surface as a contour plot andselect the correct scaling from that contour plot. Use positive values for the iso-surface. Do not use Q=0 for visualization, as it will show
very weak structures not relevant to turbulence visualizations.
It is also advisable to color the iso-surface of Q with some other variable. Interesting quantities are the eddy-viscosity ratio (μ /μ), ora velocity component which is small or zero in RANS (e.g. spanwise velocity), or the CFL number, etc. The visual inspection should bedone continuously during the entire start-up and run-time of the simulations (e.g. once per day or after every 1000 time steps). It serves
the following purposes (see for example Figure 15 and Figure 16):•

Check if unsteady turbulence develops at all and at the expected locations.

•

Check large scale symmetries/asymmetries of the flow.

•

Check the solution for numerical wiggles (odd-even decoupling).

•

Check the size of the resolved eddies and see if they are as one would expect from the grid resolution.

•

Check the CFL number on these eddies. It should be smaller than CFL≈1. Check the eddy-viscosity ratio. It should be much smaller
than RANS.

•

Check for global SRS turbulence models (SAS/DDES/SDES/SBES) if the turbulence structures develop early in the separating shear
layer or if a noticeable delay is observed (see Figure 25).

•

Check for ELES/Unsteady inlet conditions, if synthetic turbulence is reasonable and does not decay (e.g. Figure 43).

•

Check the progress of the simulation towards a statistically converged solution. This means that the resolved turbulence requires
some time until it has developed and has been transported through the domain. Time-averaging has to wait until that stage has
been achieved.

•

Include pictures of turbulence structures in any reports of the test case (slides, reports, publications, service requests).

•

If possible, make animations. This helps to understand the flow physics and is also helpful for others to understand the flow.

•

Add monitoring points at interesting locations and plot their development in time to demonstrate statistical convergence.

For all examples in this report, visual impressions of the flows are included. These serve as a guideline on how to process the results.
/ 7.2. Averaging
Unsteady simulations with scale resolution require special care in post-processing and averaging. Engineers are usually interested only
in time-averaged results and not in the details of the unsteady flowfield. It is therefore important to follow a systematic approach when
computing such quantities.

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD // 38

The typical process is to start from a RANS solution (or reasonable initial condition). When switching to any SRS model, the flow will
require some time to statistically settle into a new state for the following reasons:•

The resolved turbulence requires some time to develop and be transported through the domain.

•

The global flow topology might change from the initial (RANS) solution.

•

Other physical effects might require longer start-up times (e.g. multi-phase).

The general strategy is therefore to run the simulation for some start-up time ∆Ts, before activating the averaging process (or initiating
the acquisition of, for e.g., acoustics information). When should this process be started and how long does it take until the flow is
statistically steady? This is the stage where any increase in ∆Ts would not change the averaged solutions. Unfortunately ∆Ts depends
strongly on the flowfield and no general guidelines can be given. For some flows, the flow develops quickly (in a few thousand time
steps). For others it takes tens of thousands of steps to reach that point. However, a first estimate can be obtained by estimating‘throughflow time’ TTF. This is the time that the mean flow requires to pass one time through the domain TTF=LCFD/U∞, where LCFD is thelength of the domain and U∞ is the mean flow velocity.
The turbulence statistics typically require several (3-5) throughflow times to establish themselves. Again, this is just a rough estimate
and can depend on the particular flow.
In order to determine ∆Ts more systematically, one must monitor the simulation. It is advisable to monitor some local and some global
quantities.

•

Continuously inspect the solution visually with the aid of regular images and updated animations.

•Inspect solution variables at monitor points in the critical zone of simulation (pressure, velocity, temperature, etc.) as a function oftime. The amplitude and frequency of local oscillations should become regular before the averaged statistics can be gathered.

•

Monitor global quantities (forces on body, massflow, integrated swirl, etc.). Interesting quantities are often those which would
be zero for RANS (spanwise forces, etc.) as they are sensitive to the SRS characteristics. They also help to evaluate the overall
symmetry of the solution (they should fluctuate around zero) and to determine slow transients (quantities that fluctuate aroundzero but with low overlaid frequencies).

Only when all indicators show that the flow is no longer changing statistically (meaning only the details of the turbulence structures
are a function of time) should the averaging be activated. It is important to document the number of steps that have already occurred
when averaging was started and how many steps have been averaged. With respect to averaged quantities:•

Monitor time-averaged quantities and ensure that they are not ‘drifting.’ They will drift initially, but should then settle to an
asymptotic value.

•

Ensure that they satisfy the symmetry conditions of the flow. Any asymmetry is an indicator of non-convergence (exceptionally,
there are flows which develop physical asymmetries despite a symmetric setup. Example: some symmetric diffusers separate fromone side and stay attached on the other).

•

Ensure that the averaged quantities are smooth.

•In zonal/embedded simulations, check if averaged quantities are reasonably smooth across RANS-LES interfaces (they will neverbe perfectly smooth, but should also not change drastically).

/ 8. Summary
An overview of hybrid Scale-Resolving Simulation (SRS) technologies was given. Due to the nature of the subject, only a rough outlineof the models could be provided. The rational and the advantages-disadvantages of each model family have been discussed. Basedon the description of the models, an attempt has been made to categorize flows into sub-classes, and to map the modeling strategies
onto these classes. It should be emphasized again, that the proposed categories are not easily and clearly defined and have significant
overlap. Still it is considered necessary to explain that no single SRS model is suitable for all applications and it is not possible togeneralize about which model should be used for which type of flow.
In principle, ELES and ZFLES, in combination with WMLES are suitable for all flows, but require a substantial amount of pre-processing
work to define the corresponding zones and provide suitable grids for all of them. For complex applications, this is not always feasible/
practical and global models (SAS, DDES, SDES, SBES) are favored. Recent studies have shown a clear superiority of the SBES modelover all the other global hybrid RANS-LES formulations. The SBES model is therefore recommended for such applications. However,as detailed, all these models work only if a sufficient level of instability is present in the flow. If in doubt, it is better to select the safer
option over the more convenient one.

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD // 39

Details on many aspects of SRS have been provided, ranging from numerics, to grid resolution all the way to post-processing.
Numerous examples have been shown to allow the reader to properly place the intended application into this framework. It is
anticipated that the document will evolve over time, as new questions are posed by users and as the SRS models themselves will
evolve.
A brief summary of the more important points is provided in the Appendices.

/ Acknowledgment
The material in this report was prepared with the help of members of the turbulence team at Ansys – Jochen Schütze, Yuri Egorov,
Richard Lechner, as well as with the help of the colleagues at NTS in St. Petersburg – Mikhail Gritskevich and Andrey Garbaruk. Aleksey
Gerasimov at Ansys has provided a very thorough review, which has resulted in the removal of numerous inconsistencies and has
significantly improved the quality and readability of the document. Some of the test cases have been run in the framework of the EU
projects DESIDER and ATAAC.

/ References
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Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD //41

/ Appendix 1: Summary of Numerics Settings with Ansys Fluent
Unsteady Simulation

Comments

Convection Terms

CD/BCD

CD on simple geometries (also inside LES regions). In
case of wiggles in solution use BCD (most industrial
cases)

Pressure Discretization

Any except PRESTO

Use PRESTO only if required for other reasons. Notethat the initial formation of turbulence structures canbe delayed (inhibited) with PRESTO.

Velocity Gradients

Least Squares
Cell based

No significant impact on SRS, typically Least Square
Cell Based. For the SAS model one should use theLeast Square Cell Based, or the Green-Gauss Nodebased (GGNB). The latter allows a slightly higher
sensitivity to initial instabilities.

Iterative Method

SIMPLEC

NITA/Fractional step only for simple flows
Monitor convergence: at least 1 order in massconservation. SIMPLEC with 2-5 inner loops.
For cases which are difficult to converge try the
coupled solver. More expensive, but potentially lower
inner iterations required.
Increase Under-Relaxation Factors to values ~1

Under-relaxation

URF≈1

Start with all URF≈1 (typically 0.8.-0.95). Reduce in caseof convergence problems. Lower values for additional
physics (combustion, multi phase, …)Time Discretization

Second orderbackward Euler

Use CFL<1 in LES zones if possible. This condition canalso be relaxed depending on the flow and CFL~5 wasused for the T-junction test case successfully.
Bounded for 2nd order turbulence quantities (k, , )and other positive quantities (volume fraction, …)/ Appendix 2: Summary of Numerics Settings With Ansys CFX
Unsteady Simulation

Convection
Terms

CD/BCDTime
discretization

Second orderbackward Euler

Comments
CD on simple geometries (also inside LES regions). In case of
wiggles in solution use BCD.
The default scheme for SBES, SDES, DDES and SAS is a hybrid
scheme which switches automatically between High Res and CD.
Recent experience indicates that BCD is generally easier to apply
and often yield the same accuracy.
From Release 14 on, there is also a parameter in the GUI (CDS
Bound) which allows shifting between the classical BCD schemeand the central difference scheme.
Use CFL<1 in LES zones if possible. This condition can also be
relaxed depending on the flow.
Bounded for 2nd order turbulence quantities is default (k, , )and other positive quantities (volume fraction, …)

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD // 42

/ Appendix 3: Models
Appplications

Scale-Adaptive
Simulation (SAS)

Detached Eddy
Simulation (DES)

Comments• Use for globally unstable flows.
• ‘Safest’ SRS model, as it has URANS• Use CFL~1 for best results (higher CFL
fallback position on coarse grids/
possible but less resolution).
time steps.
• Avoid PRESTO scheme.
• Danger of falling into URANS mode
• Check Q-criterion carefully during
if flow instability is not strong.
run time to ensure SRS structures.
• More aggressive than SAS in terms• Use for globally unstable flows andwith care also for locally unstableof unsteadiness.
• Careful grid generation important
flows.
– otherwise danger of gray zones or• Always use DDES over DES to reduce
grid-induced separation.
impact of DES limiter on attachedboundary layers – use DDES shielding
function.
• Grid in SRS region must be of LES
quality – no RANS fallback position.
• Use CFL~1.
• Avoid PRESTO scheme.
• Check Q-criterion carefully during
run time to ensure SRS structures.

• Improved version of DDES. It
provides better shielding of the
RANS boundary layers and a more
Shielded Detached Eddy
Simulation (SDES)
aggressive definition of the grid
length scale – leading to more rapidtransition from RANS to LES.

Stress-Blended Eddy
Simulation (SBES)

Large Eddy Simulation(LES)• Similar to DDES but improved
shielding and reduction of gray areazone and grid-induced separation.

• Optimal model which features• This is the model of choice forasymptotic shielding of the RANS
globally and locally unstable flows.
boundary layer as well as explicit• Can also be used in WMLES mode,switch to existing alg. LES model. Can
once LES content is introduce
also be run in WMLES mode.
upstream. This can be achievedby synthetic turbulence or by aprevious RANS-LES transition
upstream (e.g. backstep).
• Use for free shear flows.
• Use if boundary layers are laminar.
• Use for turbulent boundary layers
only with high grid resolution at low
Reynolds numbers.
• Use CFL~1.
• Apply synthetic turbulence at inlets.
• Check Q-criterion carefully during
run time to ensure SRS structures.

• Typically too expensive
for wall-bounded flows.

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD // 43Wall Modeled LES(WMLES)• Use for wall boundary layers at
moderate and high Reynolds
numbers.
• Resolve boundary layer volume(××) by 10×40×20 cells.
• Use CFL~1.
• Apply synthetic turbulence at inlets.
• Check Q-criterion carefully during
run time to ensure SRS structures.

• Use for wall boundary layers at
moderate and high Reynolds
numbers.
• Resolve boundary layer volume(××) by 10×40×20 cells.
Embedded LES (ELES)
Zonal Forced LES (ZFLES) • Use CFL~1.
• Apply synthetic turbulence at RANSLES interface.
• Check Q-criterion carefully during
run time to ensure SRS structures.

• Scales much more favorably with
Reynolds number than standard
LES but still very expensive.
• Limit wall region to a small portionof flow domain (ELES).
• Note that the SBES model(SST+WALE) can also provide
WMLES capabilities).
• Allows flexible combination ofmodels in different parts of thedomain.
• If wall boundary layers in LES
domain – consider using WMLES(default in CFX).

• Grid in LES region of interface must
be of LES quality.

Vortex Method (VM) Fluent• Use to generate synthetic turbulenceat RANS-LES interface or LES(WMLES) inlet.
• Restrict interface zone to minimal
section where turbulence needs tobe converted (do not extend LES
zone far into the freestream).
• If large RANS-LES interface cannot
be avoided increase (and check) the
number of vortices specified. Can beas high as 104.
• Use CFL~1.
• Check Q-criterion carefully during
run time to ensure SRS structures.

Harmonic Turbulence
Generator (HTG) - CFX• Restrict inlet zone to LES minimal
section where turbulence needs tobe converted (do not extend LES
zone far into the freestream).

• Grid in LES region of interface must
be of LES quality.

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD // 44

/ Appendix 4: Generic Flow Types and Modeling/ Globally Unstable Flows:

Examples•••Modeling

Critical

Flows past bluff bodies:-

Flow past buildings.

-

Landing gears of airplanes.

-

Baffles in mixers, etc.

-

Side mirrors of cars.

-

Stalled wings/sails.

-

Trains/trucks/cars in crossflow.

-

Tip gap of turbomachinery blades.

-

Flows past orifices, sharp nozzles, etc.

Flows with strong swirl instabilities:-

Flow in combustion chambers of gas turbines, etc.

-

Some tip vortex flows in adverse pressure gradients.

-

Flows past vortex generators.

-

And so on.

Flows with strong flow interaction:-

Impinging/colliding jets.

-

And so on.

•

SAS model is safest option as it has RANS fall-back position.

•

DDES/SDES/SBES in case SAS does not show sufficient content of resolved turbulence.
Provide suitable LES grid in ‘LES’ region.

•

Often SAS and DDES give very similar solutions.

•

Optimal model SBES.

•

ELES typically not required.

•

Recently the DDES model has been superseded by the SDES and SBES model family.
The SBES modelling approach is recommended.

•

Visually check turbulent structures.

•

Run flow until statistically converged.

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD // 45

/ Locally Unstable Flows:

Examples••

Flows with large separation zones (> boundary layer thickness):-

Backward-facing step type flows.

-

Bump flows with large separation.

-

Cavity flows.

-

Mixing layer leaving plate/trailing edge.

Flows with weak swirl instabilities:-•

Flows with weak flow interaction:-

Modeling

CriticalFlames with low or zero swirl.
Jet in crossflow with low momentum ratio.

•

Use ELES where geometry permits.

•

DDES/SDES/SBES on high quality grids and low dissipation numerics (CD/BCD).

•

Recently the DDES model has been superseded by the SDES and SBES model family.
The SBES modelling approach is recommended.

•

Instability of Separating Shear Layer (SSL) must be resolved with DDES/SDES/SBES
quickly. ELES is safer as it provides unsteady inlet to separation zone but generally
much more expensive.

•

Visually check turbulent structures in SSL.

Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD // 46

/ Stable Flows:

ExamplesModeling

•

•

•

•

Attached and mildly separated wall bounded flows:-

Boundary layers.

-

Channel/pipe flows.

LES in separate domain if possible:-

WMLES for higher Re numbers.

-

Maybe interpolate larger domain RANS solution onto LES zone boundaries.

-

Use unsteady (synthetic) turbulence at inlet – preferred Vortex Method.

ELES in combined RANS-LES simulation:-

Define LES zone as detailed in Section 0. Extend LES zone to leave space around
critical area.

-

Place RANS-LES interface into region of uncritical flows (equilibrium boundary
layers, etc.

Global model:-

CriticalUse SBES model and place synthetic turbulence generator to force the model into
WMLES mode.

•

Visually check turbulent structures.

•

Provide sufficient grid resolution in (WM)LES zones especially for wall-bounded flows(Chapter 4.3.3).

•

CFL number<1.

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Best Practice: Scale-Resolving Simulations in Ansys CFD // 47