Effect of turbulent transport models and grid spacing on pans calculations of a lid-driven cavity

Abstract

The three-dimensional lid-driven cavity flow is investigated at Reynolds Number(Re)=10,000 for a wide range of spanwise-aspect ratios of 3:1:1, 0.5:1:1, and 1:1:1 using the Partially Averaged Navier-Stokes(PANS) turbulence closure model. The PANS turbulence model is a variable resolution turbulence closure model, where the unresolved-to-total ratios of kinetic energy (fk) and dissipation (fe), serve as resolution control parameters. This study focuses on two main aspects of PANS: (i) the evaluation of Turbulent transport models and (ii) the effect of grid spacing on accuracy of the numerical solution. PANS calculations are tested against LES and experimental results of Jordan (1994), in terms of both qualitative and quantitative quantities. The main coclusions are are: (i) for a given fk value, the Zero-Transport model is superior to the Maximum-Transport model for unresolved dissipation, (ii) both models are adequate for unresolved kinetic energy, and (iii) for a given grid size, the results depend heavily on grid spacing especially for larger fk values.