Inlet Ground Vortex Investigation and Effect of Numerical Modeling strategies

Computational fluid dynamics is used to compare numerical results with experiments for an engine intake wind tunnel model near the ground, where its inlet mass flow and ambient crosswind produce a ground vortex. The cases studied are based on three different crosswind experimental results. A mesh refinement study was made to determine a mesh with localized refinement that resulted in a computational cost reduction of 4–10 times in comparison with the initial meshes. Two different turbulence models were tested: the realizable [Formula: see text], which has consistently produced more stable steady-state results, and the shear stress transport model, which has been more sensitive to flow unsteadiness. Unsteady runs have shown that steady runs may produce a ground vortex with similar intensity and ground movement path. Higher velocity cases, where the ground vortex is combined with a large inlet separation region, have shown good qualitative agreement with experiment despite being more challenged to meet the distortion and circulation metrics.