Capturing the drag crisis in the flow around a smooth cylinder using a hybrid RANS-LES model on coarse meshes

A hybrid strategy combining Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) and large eddy simulation (LES) methods is nowadays seen as an efficient way to simulate turbulent flows of practical relevance. In this work, the scale-resolving hybrid (SRH) model proposed by Manceau (2018) is compared with a conventional unsteady RANS model, and LES and experimental data from the literature for the flow around a smooth cylinder in the flow regime around the drag crisis. Based on a temporal filtering formalism, this approach has seen limited testing for turbulent separated flows. The drag crisis phenomenon is dominated by complex near-wall physics and is challenging to simulate. The predictive accuracy and the robustness to mesh coarsening for the SRH model are assessed for this test case, with the aim to demonstrate that this hybrid approach can be a credible cost-saving alternative to LES for separated turbulent flows. The meshes considered in this numerical study are far coarser than the ones used in the LES reference data, yet, the results for the time mean drag are found in good agreement with the reference data. Other features of the flow, such as the presence and sizes of the laminar separation bubbles and the consequent magnitude of the time mean lift are not as well captured. In general, the qualitative behaviour of the SRH model is good when considered in the context of questions previously raised in the literature about hybrid models. The mesh savings are achieved by coarsening the spatial resolution in the wake, whereas the resolution required in the near-wall area and shear layers remains high, though much reduced compared to the reference LES data. The key point taken from this study is that the SRH model is an attractive option to produce higher-fidelity data on coarse meshes.