Hybrid RANS/LES simulations of a bluff-body flow

A hybrid RANS/LES approach, based on the Limited Numerical Scales concept, is applied to the numerical simulation of the flow around a square cylinder. The key feature of this approach is a blending between two eddy-viscosities, one given by the k-epsilon RANS model and the other by the Smagorinsky LES closure. A mixed finite-element/finite-volume formulation is used for the numerical discretization on unstructured grids. The results obtained with the hybrid approach are compared with those given by RANS and LES simulations for three different grid resolutions; comparisons with experimental data and numerical results in the literature are also provided. It is shown that, if the grid resolution is adequate for LES, the hybrid model recovers the LES accuracy. For coarser grid resolutions, the blending criterion appears to be effective to improve the accuracy of the results with respect to both LES and RANS simulations.