Towards Wall-Resolved Large-Eddy Simulation of the High-Lift Common Research Model

In the present study, we performed a sixth-order wall-resolved large-eddy simulation (WRLES) of the high-lift Common Research Model (CRM-HL) on the Leadership Class Computing Cluster Summit. During the 4th High-Lift Prediction Workshop (HLPW-4), wall-modeled LES (WMLES) and hybrid Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS)/LES approaches showed promise in predicting the maximum lift and large flow separations near stall. In those simulations, however, laminar and transition regions were not resolved since the flow was assumed to be fully turbulent. If one wants to resolve these regions, the only viable approach is WRLES. The main purpose of the present study is to demonstrate the feasibility of WRLES for a complex real-world configuration at the wind tunnel Reynolds number. A high-order unstructured mesh LES solver called hpMusic was employed in the study. The simulation at solution polynomial order P=5 has more than 14 billion degrees of freedom per equation. Computational results are compared to experimental data in the form of surface oil flows and pressure coefficient profiles. We highlight lessons learned from attempting a grand-challenge type large-scale simulation: 1) such a simulation is feasible but very expensive, estimated to be at least three orders more expensive than WMLES, 2) oil flows produced with WRLES agree very well with experimental oil flows in fine detail, not observed in those produced with WMLES, and 3) flow visualization is a severe bottleneck, and parallel postprocessing capability is needed.