Large eddy simulation of flow over a cylinder using highorder spectral difference method

Abstract. Large eddy simulation of the flow over a circular cylinder at Reynolds number ReD = 2580 has been studied with a high-order unstructured spectral dif-ference method. Grid and polynomial refinement studies were carried out to as-sess numerical errors. The mean and fluctuating velocity fields in the wake of a circular cylinder were compared with PIV experimental measurements. The nu-merical results are in excellent agreement with the experimental data for both the mean velocity and Reynolds stresses using the high-order SD scheme. Other wake characteristics such as the recirculation bubble length, vortex formation length and maximum intensity of the velocity fluctuations have also been predicted accurately. The numerical simulations demonstrated the potential of the high-order SD method in accurate large eddy simulation of physically complex problems