Comparative study on predicting turbulent kinetic energy budget using high-order upwind scheme and non-dissipative central scheme

Abstract The accurate computation of different turbulent statistics poses different requirements on numerical methods. In this paper, we investigate the capabilities of two representative numerical schemes in predicting mean velocities, Reynolds stress and budget of turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) in low Mach number flows. With concerns on numerical order of accuracy, dissipation and dispersion properties, a high-order upwind scheme with relatively good dispersion and dissipation and a second-order non-dissipative central scheme with perfect dissipation but poor dispersion are adopted for this comparative study. By carrying out a series of numerical simulations including Taylor-Green vortex, turbulent channel flow at $$Re_{\tau }=180$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>R</mml:mi> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>e</mml:mi> <mml:mi>τ</mml:mi> </mml:msub> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>180</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> and turbulent flow over periodic hill at $$Re_{b}=10595$$ <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML"> <mml:mrow> <mml:mi>R</mml:mi> <mml:msub> <mml:mi>e</mml:mi> <mml:mi>b</mml:mi> </mml:msub> <mml:mo>=</mml:mo> <mml:mn>10595</mml:mn> </mml:mrow> </mml:math> , it can be obtained that although the high-order upwind scheme lacks perfection of dissipation in high wave number range, it still demonstrates superior predictive capability compared with the second-order non-dissipative central scheme, especially with relatively coarse grids. Finally, by taking the high-order upwind scheme as a suitable selection for turbulence simulation, the turbulent flow over a 30P30N multi-element airfoil is investigated as an application study. After briefly comparing the simulated profiles and spectrum with reference experimental results as validation, the budget of TKE is analyzed to locate the dominant flow structures and regions. It is found that the production and dissipation terms behave in a “monopole” pattern in the locations with strong shears and wakes. Whereas the advection and diffusion terms show an “inward” pattern and an “outward” pattern, which indicate the spatial transport of TKE between the center of the shear layer and nearby locations.