Characterization of a Three-Dimensional Turret Wake for Active Flow Control Part I: Simulation

The use of airborne optical devices has led to an increased need to study the flow around a turret. Separation around the turret causes density fluctuations that degrade the performance of the optical device. The separation region can be decreased using different methods of flow control, such as suction. A computational fluid dynamics code that employed Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes turbulence models was used to estimate the flow field around a turret and was compared with particle image velocimetry data for validation. The k-$\omega $ model performed better than the commonly used k-$\varepsilon $ turbulence model when comparing the separation area and separation strength (integral of the negative streamwise component of velocity) on the center plane of a turret. The k-$\varepsilon $ model predicted the separation area with an error of 74{\%} and the k-$\omega $ model predicted the separation area with an error of 13{\%}. Separation Strength was predicted with an error of 83{\%} and 25{\%} by the k-$\varepsilon $ model and the k-$\omega $ model respectively. The more accurate k-$\omega $ model will be used to guide future flow control experiments.