Hybrid RANS/ILES for aero engine intake

Hybrid, Implicit Large Eddy Simulations (ILES) for an idealized aero engine intake in a crosswind is performed. The ILES zone is smoothly blended to a near wall Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) zone. The flow has a region of high favourable pressure gradient (FPG) where the streamwise acceleration parameter (KS) is found to be greater than 3×10-6. This is sufficient to laminarize the boundary layer (BL). As a consequence, the turbulence in the boundary is severely suppressed and this interacts with a shock causing separation and distortion at the engine fan face. This is known to be undesirable for aero engines. The separated shear layer reenergizes turbulence and this promotes reattachment. The calculation in the RANS zone has been enhanced with a novel three-component RANS model and this is used in the hybrid RANS/ILES framework. Simulations also consider the modelling of roughness. The turbulent statistics and the engineering relevance of these are also discussed in this work. Broadly, encouraging agreement is found with measurements. Substantial accuracy improvements are found relative to standard RANS model simulations. The accuracy of the hybrid simulations is also contrasted with pure ILES and the critical need for the RANS layer shown for modest grids