A Modified Smagorinsky Subgrid Scale Model for the Large Eddy Simulation of Turbulent Flow

Abstract

In the field of Large Eddy Simulation, the Smagorinsky subgrid scale model (in some form) is the most commonly accepted and used subgrid scale model. The purpose of this paper is to address the main weakness of the Smagorinsky model, its poor performance near the wall. The goal is to establish a model that corrects the Smagorinsky model near the walls while at the same time minimizing the computational overhead. A version the Dynamic Subgrid Scale model is also incorporated into the finite element code to facilitate comparisons with the new model near the walls. One of the unique characteristics of Large Eddy Simulations as compared to other methods of dealing with turbulent flows is the idea of filtering. In this paper we define what a filter is and also address an issue related to filters; the error that results when the filtering and differential operations are interchanged. This error is studied under the context of the Finite Element Method which allows us to focus on the function being filtered rather than the filter kernal function, which has been the usual approach in studying this error.