A dynamic multilevel model for the simulation of the small structures in homogeneous isotropic turbulence (Q1288956)

In turbulence simulations, the small scales of motion, even if they carry only a very small percentage of the whole kinetic energy, must be taken into account in order to accurately reproduce the statistical properties of the flows. This induces strong computational restrictions. In an attempt to understand and model the nonlinear interaction between the small and large scales, a dynamic multilevel procedure is proposed and applied to homogeneous turbulence. By analyzing the nonlinear interaction terms in the large scale equations, we show that they locally have a very small contribution to the whole dynamics of the flow. We then propose to treat them less accurately. Specific treatments for these terms are achieved by a space and time adaptative procedure, the cut-off value (filter width) which defines the scale separation varies as time evolves. Simulations at \(\text{Re}_\lambda\) in the range of 60 to 150 have been performed until statistical steady states are reached, i.e. over long time period. Comparisons with direct simulations show that this numerical modeling provides an efficient resolution of the nonlinear interaction term.